Chapter 5: Answers

Author: This chapter has a lot of information and also has some information purposefully left out. Some things might be confusing but please bear with me.

Perspective- Asher

"Ughh." Groaning, I tried to sit up.

I was met with force pushing my shoulders down. Looking up at the force pushing down on me I had to blink to make sure I wasn't seeing things

'Why…?'

There she was, the monstrous genius herself, Ciel Cherith. She looked down at me with her icey eyes before parting her lips.

"Rest."

"...Why are you he-"

[Calm down boy.]

"What the f-"

'Wait…is that one of her spirits?'

[Your observation skills are somewhat decent for an infant.]

"...And you're reading my mind."

[Raftiel is my name boy I am the spirit of healing]

"Ahhh…How are you in my head?"

'Wait…'

I looked up at Ciel who was still holding my shoulders down and then at her hands.

'Physical contact?'

[Even a frozen clock hits the mark twice a day.]

"You said it wrong…"

"Is that how it works?" Ciel's mouth formed an oh as she reached a sudden enlightenment.

[...Dear you aren't meant to-]

'The tone shift,...it's like he's a father in those novels.'

[How dare you, you barbarian.]

"God can you stop reading my mind?"

[Figure out how to block me out.]

"How-'' I looked up at Ciel.

"...."

"Could you tell me how?"

[You basta-]/

"You could use mana to shield your brain."

"Ahh that makes sense. Thank you."

[Ho- How could you Ciel.]

"I'll ask Olivine to teach me later."

[...Boy]

"Hm?"

[How are you feeling?"

"Amazing. Why?"

[Cause you stabbed yourself six different times and that's only counting successful attempts]

"...Oh yeah"

I forgot about the risk that I took.

'It was worth it'

My body is lighter, stronger and best of all I could breathe. For the first time in the last 8 years, I could breathe. I looked at my hand clenching and unclenching my fist repeatedly.

"Ciel…why are you still grabbing my shoulder?"

"Miss Olivine said to rest."

"I have to get home."

[He's right Ciel you shouldn't be with such a barbarian for so long.}

"Why do you keep calling me a barbarian?"

[Look at yourself]

I looked at my legs at the cuffs of my black pants that were now tightly

Gripping my calves instead of covering my ankles.

'Wait…didn't I take my shirt off?'

I held up my arm looking at my shoulder seeing it wasn't covered by a shirt or anything. However, instead of skeleton-like arms, my arms now had muscle definition. Even my abs are visible with a good amount of definition.

[It's because the mana gathering process both worked out and nurtured your muscles. You also gained some height.]

"..."

I stood up trying to assess how much height I've gained. It surprisingly felt natural even though my body had changed so much. Thanks to Ciel's hands being off me I didn't hear Raftiel's voice anymore so I could focus. I looked behind me to see what I was laying on, a black couch. I looked around and I saw a normal living room with a long couch spanning 3 meters. The room itself was 10 meters by 10 meters. And there were two matching sofa chairs on both ends of the couch, both the couch and sofa chairs faced towards the same center table that was like a miniature version of the round table. The couch also faced a giant white board with random symbols on it. I faced Ciel who was behind one of the arm rests that I was probably laying on. She's around 180 cm tall and judging by the difference I'm around 195 cm tall now…

'Damn…a whole 10 cm'

Suddenly Ciel's hand grabbed my own.

[How dare you…]

'I needed to focus and did you tell Ciel to grab me?'

[I don't like it either. I'd rather she avoid all contact with barbarians like you, boy.]

'What do you need to tell me?'

[Your contacts are gone. They most likely melted off during the mana awakening.]

"Crap.."

"They're better now" Ciel stated as she looked right into my eyes.

"...Okay. By the way, why are my eyes green? My entire family's eyes are brown"

[You were instinctively using mana. You couldn't breathe in or absorb mana like somebody your age should've been able to so at one point the mana needed some point to exit. For some reason that point for you was your eyes. This is a very odd case since usually it exits out of a person's waste.]

"It was probably because I was fond of observing and reading things since I was very young…Now that I think about it my eyes did turn green a year or so after I got my diagnosis. And around that time my eyes became super good randomly."

[For a freak you're oddly stupid at times.]

"..." Choosing to ignore Raftiel I focused on Ciel, "Ciel how is school so far?"

"..." She stayed silent looking away for a little.

[She doesn't understand any of the material.]

Ciel's eyes widened as she was shocked by the sudden betrayal.

'So even the super genius can get embarrassed. How cute.'

[Boy! Mind your thoughts!]

I rolled my eyes before focusing them back on Ciel, "Do you want me to help you study?"

Ciel looked at me with her cold eyes glistening a bit, "Really?"

"You saved my life so it's only natural. You're staying here for a while right?"

Ciel nodded

'She really only says what she has to…'

My reasoning wasn't a lie though I really only offered because she saved my life. She was also rather comfortable to be behind cause she wasn't the type to act over the top or rude for no reason from what I've seen.

"Do you have a phone?"

Ciel nodded her head

"Wait how do I talk to you since I doubt any service plans can cross dimensions and I probably won't be in school for a while."

Ciel stayed still for a moment.

[No you can't give this barbarian such a precious treasure. You fought a tier 16, mid-grade spirit for it.]

"Hm?"

[...I'm assuming you don't know what spirit tools are. Basically when a spirit user defeats a spirit they can either keep it as an extension of their individual power or use it to craft a spirit tool. Each spirit tool has a special function depending on the spirit.]

My eyes probably showed the joy I was feeling because Raftiel suddenly yelled.

[No!]

Ciel's hand slipped out of my right hand reaching into the pockets of her sweat pants. What she took out was a black ring box. She opened the box and gave me one of the rings.

"The color is a bit…"

The ring itself was white with what seemed to be blue gems encrusted into it.

"Customizable" Ciel said, noticing my worry.

"Thank you."

To which she just nodded again.

"How?"

Ciel parted her lips explaining, "Imagine in your head."

I grabbed the ring imagining instead of a white ring it was black and instead of blue gems I changed them to green. I chose to match my own color scheme since that seemed right. I then slipped the ring onto my right ring finger.

Ciel made her ring the same except with ice blue gems.

"So what are the functions of these…soul tools?"

"Telepathy."

"Oh..how does it work?"

"Think of the other person and then think."

I closed my eyes and imagined Ciel's face and then some random words.

"Did you hear it?"

Once again I was met with a nod.

"Seems you two are getting rather close?" A familiar voice echoed in the living room.

"Olivine?"

"Mhm you are correct."

I turned to look at Olivine.

"How are you feeling?" Olivine asked me with worry visible in her eyes.

"Pretty amazing though…I do need clothes."

Olivine snapped her fingers as clothes that were the same exact ones as the ones I was wearing when I came here, just better fit magically appeared on me.

"Thank you"

"You're welcome." Olivine said before the slits in her eyes became thinner and she appeared right in front of me. "If you ever do something so idiotic like that again you won't have to worry about living. Since I'll be taking care of that myself, understand?" She grabbed the collar of my crewneck looking me in the eyes.

Pressure exponential to the weight I felt from the waterfall pressed down on me as I did.

"..Understood." I voiced out in fear.

"Wonderful." She let go of my collar and fixed my hair that now reached my chin.

"Can I go home now?"

"Of course. Stay safe."

She snapped her fingers and me, her and Ciel appeared outside to where the griffin landed the first time. Alec was there waiting as well.

"Finally…woah what happened there"

"Late growth spurt?"

I was now a few centimeters taller than Alec who was previously the tallest in our classes.

"You're also…better looking than I thought."

I raised a brow, "I…don't swing that way dude."

"Neither do I dumbass. Now get on the griffin."

"Alright before that though." I turned towards Ciel, "Hold out your phone for a moment."

Ciel took her phone out of her pocket and held it towards me.

I tapped my phone against her instantly adding her number to my contacts.

"Now that's a more efficient way of contacting each other. What's your schedule by the way?"

She pulled out her schedule showing me it.

"Freaky…we're in all the same classes."

'Thinking about it I also share every class with Noel and Alec…'

"Nevermind. Talk to you later Ciel." I got onto the griffin which was a lot easier than before.

Alec, who was on the griffin's head, slightly turned his head towards me while we were rising. "You managed to talk to Cherith?"

I nodded, not thinking much of it.

"Weird…even I couldn't get close to her."

"Guess not everybody likes you then."

"One person doesn't make you a superstar Clovis."

We continued to banter back and forth until we got to the cliff we were on before. Jumping off of the Raven Alec took out a key turning it in the air. Following the action were glowing lines shaped like the lines between bricks appearing in the air and separating at the middle opening up a gateway. The gateway led to…the sewer. We both walked in and immediately I missed my mask which I was keeping in a bag for the time being. The smell from the sewers was absolutely putrid, I felt like I could barf at any given moment.

Alec noticing this purposefully took his time walking in front of me as if to block my way. As soon as we reached the exit Alec snapped his fingers blasting open the manhole cover. We both left and parted ways. I then checked my phone for the time seeing that only 1 hour had passed, meaning 10 hours probably passed inside that dimension. Walking over to my bike I rode home, reaching there in less time than it took me to arrive.

I parked my bike in the garage and walked through the building's entrance, tossing the keys to Andrew Chen who was bowing his head. After Andrew caught the keys he pressed a button that opened the elevator doors which I walked through.

"Thank you Mr, Chen"

"He looked up saying, You're welcome, young ma-"

After he replied the elevator doors began shutting but not before I saw the confused look on his face. He was probably wondering about my large physical change from the height gain, eye color and hair length. I closed my eyes for a moment or two.

"Ro…"

"Yes sir?"

"Call both of my parents and tell them to come to my study."

The building was large enough for us to each have our own floors for whatever we wished. My father modeled his floor after a library while my mother's was based on an art museum. For now Lior didn't have a floor since she was only 4 and not nearly old enough to be able to make such a large decision. As soon as I could have my floor so around when I was 10 I chose to model mine off of a study.

"Understood sir."

Getting off of the elevator onto the floor where my study was located I took off my crewneck having it folded on my arm.

Inside the floor were two large bookshelves on my left and right sides that were made of ebony wood and covered both walls entirely. The other walls were a matching ebony with oak wood pillars in each of the four corners. Even the floor was ebony. However, opposite of me across the room was my desk that matched the floors with a black chair. And in the center of the room were two red couches and a glass table in the middle. I walked over to the table, grabbing a kettle and pouring myself a cup of green tea. I went to sit at my desk folding the crewneck on the back of the chair, and did some homework while I waited for my parents.

Around 1 hour passed and I saw the elevator doors open with two well dressed individuals.

"Sorry we're late my son we had to put Lior to be-" My father was speaking until he saw my "new" appearance.

I stood up unbuttoning the single collar button of the dress shirt I was wearing. I used my phone to look at my face, which I didn't notice before but my jaw was even more defined.

I put my phone in my pocket and said, "Sit down father and mother please."

My father was about to voice something only to be cut off by my mother, "Okay."

They sat down on one of the sofas of which I sat opposite of. I poured them two cups of tea and put them on small glass plates. I looked at my watch and checked the time.

'22:00'

"I won't keep you for long since we all have our own things to focus on but I'd like an explanation."

"You'd like an explanation? Ash, with all due respect we'd like an explanation for your sudden change." My mother voiced.

I calmly took a sip of my tea and as my lips separated from the cup I said, "You know how mother or rather father should."

"...Mana awakening." Father said

"?!" My mother's eyes widened.

I nodded my head.

"Father, you're correct as always." I smiled before taking another sip of tea. "You should really try it. I had it shipped from the Chongsheng continent."

"There are more pressing matters than tea here Ash you're saying you-" My mother was cut off by laughter, my laughter.

"You think I don't know how pressing this is mother? I just found out my parents lied to me and that because of that lie I had to live like a freak."

"Ash-" My mother tried pleading to me only to be met with a cold gaze.

"How do you think I felt? Even more than that do you intend to do the same to Lior? To my sister?!"

"Of course not! What happened to you was unfortunate and difficult to control." Once again she tried explaining but was met with deaf ears.

"What do you mean unfortunate?! You made me believe something was wrong with me. Do you understand the isolation I faced?!" At this point all that I could feel was anger.

The anger reached the point where I had crushed the handle of the cup which was fortunately empty.

"Yet..yet you lied to me. You knew what I faced, you knew how I felt yet you lied to me." My eyes had come to resemble rain clouds as tears dripped and dripped continuously.

"Ash…" I didn't have to look to know how sad she was but I didn't care.

'Why am I acting like this…All I wanted to do was have a calm conversation. Why am I yelling at my mother?'

I wasn't used to this, I wasn't used to the conflict of my mind and my heart. I had shut myself off from emotions for so long…so long that I guess I didn't notice. I didn't notice that I didn't shut myself off from emotions but rather shut the emotions in me, not letting them show to anyone…even me.

"Asher Clovis." A voice stripped of the jolliness I usually heard sounded.

"Father…"

"You know that your mother and I wouldn't have done anything to harm you. We can explain everything."

"Then do it. Explain."

"...Starting off I don't know where from but you probably heard a little bit of my identity and possibly even your mothers."

I nodded in response, growing impatient.

"Firstly…when your mother and I were around 10 years old there was a war. A war between Viators and "visitors'' if you will. A war that lasted for 5 years."

"Hm?"

"So that was around…24 years ago. The war was huge at a scale I couldn't comprehend. For the first time since its founding, nay ever, every branch of the Viators worked together to stop a threat. Which I couldn't understand since for 10 years I had learned that all of the other branches were rivals of sorts."

I couldn't help but ask, "What was the other side like?"

My father let out a laugh as he said, "Other side…it was only 2 people."

"...what?"

"2 people had caused all 100,000 of us to group up."

"100,000?"

'Even if each branch was at 12,000 which is the highest amount according to Olivine…that's only possible if ...."

"How many people died?"

"Tens of thousands of people most of the deaths were from the Spirit users and Martial artists."

"..."

"Amongst those deaths were the deaths of both your mother's and my own father. When my father died around the end of the war I wondered why we were fighting, why did people have to die and the end of the war only made me question more."

"How did the war end?"

"The enemy left. A giant blue portal suddenly opened up and they left."

"..."

"We didn't even win the war properly. And what were the costs of this war? Tens of thousands of lives, hell even an entire continent was lost."

"Wait, run that back an entire continent?"

"Oh…prior to the war there were four continents but after the war we considered that continent gone as it was already sinking beneath water levels."

"How is this not known?"

"World wide mind control. The spirit users sacrifice around 10 tier 17 mid grade spirits and use them in the remaining three continents to erase memories."

'So I guess mid grade spirit tools can have an area of effect' at this point

At this point the anger and betrayal I felt was lost as I looked at the eyes of my father and mother. I had to feel a bit of empathy for my parents at the very least…no matter how betrayed I felt they were my parents and they had just been reminded of the death of a parent.

"...Okay so I guess after that you and mother became settlers?"

"Mhm it took a little while to convince her but I'm glad I did."

"So how does that relate to the expla-"

"We had to leave our homes when we were around 18. Lets say your grandmothers and company weren't happy we were trying to give up our abilities. So I stole these two bracelets that were made by not only spirit users but also chi users. These bracelets allowed one to give up their ability to absorb energy. So when we left we had begun this "treatment" of sorts. And 2 years after you were born, but the treatment wasn't done yet so you were born differently. As I mentioned before the mana branches were rivals of sorts meaning not many marriages between the two happened and if they did the people were stripped of their abilities and only then was marriage allowed. But that didn't apply to us so when you were born you had qualities of both a martial artist and a mana user. And the bracelet while limiting our absorption abilities had effects and only boosted your's. Normally a child could go without mana or qi awakening because their natural absorption speed is usually either the same or slower than its natural exertion rate. But for you it was different. You'd have to awaken and open up your mana veins so that the mana has more room to move. But since you didn't go through that the mana clogged at a certain age. We didn't know how to deal with it so we made a call. I had this connection to this "doctor" who was also a Settler but he still had communication with his family. His family was known for their alchemy so I had asked him to prepare something to help you breathe and to limit your absorption speed. That's what your mask was. Not only did it exchange gasses for you it also released a gas that would limit the amount of mana you naturally absorbed. We'd rather that happen than you being a part of the Viators because the Viators are monsters. The heads of each of the branches could not care less about the lives of the lower subordinates. We know you went through isolation but…isn't that better than dying?"

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath in.

"Father…Mother." I looked at my father and mother who had her head down. "I know you were simply doing what you believed was safer for me but…it was my choice. I could have awoken at an earlier age instead of having to wear that mask. And maybe I wouldn't have joined the Viators if you had just explained like you are now. But no, you simply stripped me of the right to choose. Also do you know how easier awakening would have been if I had awoken before you limited my absorption speed. Instead I had to stab myself with a fuckin rock. And before you ask I'm alright I just had to speed up my absorption to unclog my arteries."

"..."

"..."

"But…I won't hold it against you on one condition. When Lior turns 10 let her make a decision on whether she wants to pursue mana or not. Cause I'm assuming Lior has a healthy absorption rate."

"You're right…Lior's absorption rate has been normal since birth."

"That's good…"

"Now do you both agree?"

Both my mother and my father looked at me and said, "Yes".

This was so weird to me, cause who can say that they could talk to their parents like this? It didn't feel like we were family right now, it felt more like we were negotiating a contract.

"One more thing though Ash…" My mom looked me dead in the eyes.

"Hm?" For some reason I felt more nervous now than I did when I called them here.

"Who gave you that ring?" A "smile" spanned across her face.

I could see my father's mouth a few words, "Good luck."

Nevermind, this is definitely a family.