Chapter 13: Solution

At this moment Anette and Mitchell hurriedly walked in. Merlin followed closely behind them. When they saw Bianca's reaction and connected it to their child, they panicked. 

"W-what happened??" Anette and Mitchell spoke at the same time. The horror in their eyes was filled with helplessness in the situation. 

"...it is nothing serious. For now! Lu, go closer to Kaela and try to hold his hand," said Bianca after more observation. 

She believed if the ritual's magic was responsible for keeping the aura in Mikaela's body at bay, then it was a good thing. In other words, the connection between Lucien and Mikaela was a protective bond. It was better if they were as close as possible, well, until they found a solution.

Lucien looked at his mother dumbstruck but didn't bother to question her decision. He knew one thing about his mother, she was overprotective of him. She would not let anything harm him, not even Mikaela.

"Okay, Mom," he said, finally regaining control of his body. 

He sauntered and attempted to hold Mikaela's hand. The closer he got the more he felt a pull of nature urging him to go closer. He looked at Bianca and she nodded with a warm soothing smile. 

Regaining some assurance, he took the hand that was as small as his, and right then, some power essence from Mikaela leaked into the room. It flowed out slowly and the magic within Lucien leaked at some point as well. The room was filled with two opposing powers that seemed to harmonize. There was no rejection between the two.

The parents all had one thought, 'How peculiar.'

It was only then they realized what the essence was. It had the power to resonate with the world and stirred their mana and aura all the same. 

'This is ether! Pure ether!' they all thought.

Ether was the source of magic, its origin. It was almost impossible to see it in the current society as humans adopted ether as Aura for weapon masters and Mana for mages. It was also the origin of Qi, Tai Chi, Yin, Yang, Yokai, and etcetera for martial artists. It was common sense that only divine beasts and spirits could manipulate this energy due to their close connection to nature and the world itself.

They realized they had underestimated the effects of the ritual. They didn't quite know the effects either. It was their last straw of hope. It seemed that destiny was leading them on a path of hardships. 

Great power always came at an equivalent cost, what would their children pay in exchange for their gift from nature? The price was too great to imagine.

Lucien had fallen to a trance-like state and his ocean-blue eyes had white worm-like strings flowing in his eyes. 

"Again, Bianca, what is happening?" Anette took a deep breath and asked in a more composed manner.

"A side effect of the 'destiny bonding and fate severing' ritual. As you can see, their power has no repulsion. With constant exchange of energy and growth of power within their bodies, they have enormous power reserves. It has built up in their bodies until now causing a sudden imbalance and almost breaking free." explained Bianca.

"Almost?" Merlin was surprised. 

It was common knowledge that unbalanced power would certainly break free and that would cause irreversible damage to the body and core. Let alone a three-year- old's fragile body with such large reserves. They would be torn apart, shredded completely by their power.

"Yes, now comes the good side effect. Their monstrous talent is currently forcefully suppressed by ritual magic. The loop we saw on their day of birth still exists within them," explained Bianca while drawing an infinity loop with a golden glow.

"It is a good thing they were close when it happened, or maybe, it only happened because they were close. Otherwise, the consequences would be unimaginable… Now, that is all I know. I have no idea how to help with the energy within them. It is too much to be ignored," said Bianca, nodding, but her face showed concern and confusion.

After a while of silence, Anette stepped forward. Her blood-red eyes stared at Mikaela and Lucien and sighed in relief after understanding the situation.

"Our family has a manual on various treatments. One of the most commonly used and safest paths is training, letting energy wear out naturally. Usually, it starts at five to six years but we don't have the luxury to wait. The second…is having someone forcefully extract it. Without accuracy, this is very, very dangerous," said Anette with a solemn face.

Merlin offered his opinion as well,

"A magical artifact is good for consuming magical power constantly when not sealed. We can also use another forbidden spell to seal their cores. It will prevent any more accumulation until they are old enough or skilled enough to handle the pressure." 

'These are feasible…' thought Bianca.

Bianca who was in deep thought snapped into her senses. 

"We can use all three methods. Time… is running out, so sealing their cores is out of the question. It is too early for intensive training when they hardly know the basics. We will make that our first mission, I assume it is strength training and aura sensing-" she looked at Mikaela and thought 'With that much energy, it would be impossible not to sense it. Haha~ Stupid thought,' "Never mind, strength and foundation training for weapon masters and mana manipulation and spell casting for mages. Let's start with that! Give them an artifact that can consume their power constantly at regulated times and we will study a more feasible sealing technique. One that can accommodate higher levels. It is usually said that talent snowballs with time…" Bianca said the final sentence weakly. 

She knew that it was harder to stop growth with time, unless, the mana core was shattered or one simply had mediocre talent. With their children's monstrous talent, it was bound to be a huge avalanche of talent. The constant cycle of infinity would make it so that their energy reserve grew passively…It indeed needed a much higher-level seal. 

Merlin and Anette took out an artifact in the form of a stone pendant with a red rune mark and another, a silver bracelet with golden inscriptions, handing them over to Bianca. 

Bianca activated her eyes until they turned completely white and luminous, the extreme level of mastery.

She was shocked once more!