New Powers

Atlas POV

Hearing the child, I turn around. I'm still alone in the library. Was I hearing things?

"Up here silly! Why are you looking near the ground?"

I turn up and then I see it.

A bright glowing blue ball of light. Not only that but a bright red ball, green ball and white ball were also floating close by. It was like they were shyly peaking at me.

"You? The bright blue ball?"

"Waaah! Blue ball? I'm a water spirit silly sir! All powerful, the all mighty and the beautiful… CETO!"

"Yes of course, the great Ceto. The beautiful and lovely Ceto."

"Mmhm. That's me. The one and only! Since you know me then we can quickly make a contract!"

Wait, I was just playing along with this child.

"A contract? What do you mean? From what I've read, elemental spirits only contract with the elves."

Elemental Spirits were known as the children of the World Tree. A tree that the elves worshipped. In return for the elves taking care of their parent, the spirits would contract with an elf of their choice. I've never heard of them contracting outside of the elves.

"You're special? Haven't you noticed. We were told to look for someone special. You're special to us!"

I wasn't too sure what they meant. Maybe they felt Kai's blessing?

"You're saying I'm special because of the Dragon God's blessing, right?"

"No! I mean, that is special too but you have something even more special. The Dreamer's blessing!"

Oh yeah! Kai did say something about that and how I was supposed to think about an ability I want. I should do that after this contract is done.

"Is it that special? I don't know much about it. Could you tell me why it's special?"

"You don't know why it's special? The Sage that saved the elves also had the Dreamer's blessing. So, all spirits wish to contract with someone that has the Dreamer's blessing! So please! Allow us the honor of being contracted to you!"

If I remember correctly, once contracted to a spirit, you'll be able to use the element that your contracted to. But will it work with me?

"I have no affinity to any of the elements. Is that okay? I wouldn't be able to work with you right?"

"Oh, is that why you seem so hesitant? Don't worry! When you make a contract with a spirit, we spirits merge with you. Once merged, we'll be working together as one. We share mana and elemental affinities. We quiet literally become one."

"So, I can use water magic if you merge with me, right? That means I can finally use magic, right???"

"Duh! That's what I been saying. We become partners, partner!"

I'm felt like a child waking up on Christmas. This means I can finally use magic. Even if it's just water magic.

"Alright! I'll form a contract with you! How does it work?"

"Yay! Come on everyone! He agreed!"

As Ceto called out, the green, white and red ball came flying out and floated next to the blue one.

"Wait? Aren't I just making a contract with you Ceto?"

"What?? Of course not, I was speaking for all my friends. They were just shy and was too scared to ask you themselves!"

I couldn't help but smile. You got to be kidding me. All four elements? I might be able to escape this place sooner than planned.

"Sorry I didn't know. I'll gladly make a contract with you four then. Pleased to be working with you all from now on."

All four spirits began flying around, noise similar to cheers echoed through the library.

"Once we merge with you, we won't be able to talk with you for a few days. We must completely merge ourselves with you. So don't be scared if you don't hear us silly boy."

With those words, we make the contract and the spirits begin the merging process.

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An entire year has pass since that day. Everyday I've trained with a different spirit. Ceto told me that we needed to train together like this so that the spirits could learn to work with me better. I would tell the spirit which spells I wanted, then I would gather the necessary mana for how powerful I want it to be. The spirit would then take on the element part of the spell. They would imagine the strongest flame, the most powerful water, the most unbreakable earth or the fastest wind to match with the power I want.

(View the chapter "The Relationship Between Mana and Magic" to understand how magic works again if you need.)

Now we work together well. However, we can always do better. I want to be able to instantaneously gather the mana and have the spirit release their element at the same time. That way we can fire off spells quicker. Well, I'm sure it will all come together in the future.

While training together with Ceto, I overheard the four guards from behind the door in the library.

"We need to leave tonight. The First Prince finally discovered this place. Who cares about guarding Atlas? We only did it because Killian asked us to. If we don't leave, the First Prince's army will kill us."

"Maybe you're right. Let's just leave now then? It'll be better to leave now since everyone would think that we are with Atlas."

"You're right, let's hurry and go."

With that, I hear four pair of footsteps leave in a different direction. I could stop them but it doesn't matter. From what I've heard, the four guards are siblings that had no other choice but to join the Beast Kingdom Army to survive. I hope they live a happy life somewhere.

The little water spirit leaves my body and circles around me.

"Did you hear that, Atlas?? Tonight, is the perfect night to escape! We can finally be free just like you wanted."

It is true that I wanted to be free… but I want to at least let the subjects escape as well. If I leave, the people here may use the subjects as cannon fodders. Most of the subjects here are like Lily and I. They don't deserve to suffer anymore.

"Let's help others escape first, we can't just-."

"Don't worry silly boy! The four of us knows that you want to give the subjects the chance to escape. We merged with you remember. Everything you've seen we've seen. No matter what you choose to do, know that we will always be on your side."

This girl, she has defiantly seen all my memories.

"Okay thank you Ceto. Let's help them escape first then we will leave after. I think we can complete everything before the prince's army shows up."

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Later that night, right before sunset, I went towards the arena first, where all those who trained their Death's Aura was being held. After releasing them I will help those who are locked in the facility that I was in my first five years here.

As I head towards the arena, I see what seems to be a crowd walking towards the arena as well. Even those it was getting dark I could make out the doctor coats. They were all facility members.

I've learned to hide my mana so I could sneak close to the group without anyone noticing me. The more I heard the angrier I got.

"Sir, are you sure we should do this? General Killian worked hard on this project. If you do this, nearly 10 years would have been wasted. We all would have wasted 10 years here."

The one who seems to be leading the group turns around. Staring into the crowd, he releases his Death's Aura at 25 %.

"You can stop me if you want, the guards all ran away already. They all had Death's Aura of 30 %. Since they're all gone, that makes me the strongest one here. I'm deciding that we must use these subjects to stop any of the prince's army from getting close. I'm just doing what Killian would have done."

"Listen everyone, we must remember the purpose of these subjects. The King had this project started because he suspected that the First Prince was going to usurp the throne someday. He wanted an army that could blend into the crowd to stop the prince when he attempted this. Unfortunately, we couldn't produce any strong mana only users. So, we must put them to use now!"

I couldn't listen to this anymore. Walking out I confront the crowd of 20 facility members.

"So that's your goal with all of this? You had me kill all those innocent people so that I could be use as a cannon fodder in your civil war."

The crowd turned towards me. Many started shaking in fear. The leader stood his ground and answered back.

"You're not wrong. We wanted someone strong enough to take the prince by surprise if he ever tried to take the throne by force. We figured that a strong magic user would stand out too much. After searching, General Killian remembered stories of a strong human who had perfect control over his mana and reached the mythical 100 % Death's Aura. When the King heard of this, more than half of the humans in the Beast Kingdom Army was ordered to bring this story to reality."

So… this Kingdom took advantage of people who were down on life and desperate? Not only that, they took people from other kingdoms as well. Sacrificing the regular people to protect those in power???

"So, you achieved this by kidnapping, buying and taking advantage of not just your people but others as well. You're monsters."

'Mud Chains,'

On cue, chains created of mud wrapped around the legs of every single facility member.

"I'll punish all those who are here at the moment. Thinking that you guys could play the role of God and create a human meant for killing. I will play the role of the Death God and send you to meet the one you want to imitate so much."

Just those words alone caused all the facility members to release their Death's Aura, desperate to stay alive, they did all that they could, however, Atlas' Death's Aura was at 30%. Nothing could stop him now.

Atlas created thousands of flaming swords and hurls them at the group. The group was shock, they knew that Atlas was strong. But he shouldn't an affinity to the elements, meaning he shouldn't be able to use magic at all.

The leader of the group tried to stop the flaming swords.

"Hurry! If you don't want to die then cast your strongest water spell!"

"Water Wall!"

Many voices echo out as they cast a spell together. A giant wall of water formed to stop the thousands of flaming swords. Some swords still went through and stabbed into the ones hiding behind the wall.

Panicking, the ones left alive tried to break free from the mud chains. They didn't want to wait for the next wave of swords to come at them.

"Air Scythe!"

As they try to break the chains, they hear the slicing of a scythe and then the water wall in front of them is sliced in half vertically. In the middle of the water wall, Atlas could be seen walking through. Only his dark blue eyes were visible to everyone present. The eyes some may consider beautiful, currently looked like they belonged to the Death God himself.

"Stop him! We must kill him and then stop the prince after! All for the Beast Kingdom! All for the King!"

The leader shouts as he tried to rally everyone against Atlas. Atlas however proves to them that their numbers do not matter by stopping them all in their tracks.

"Majestic Water Show."

Atlas utters some words. Then before their eyes, creatures made of water began appearing in the air. All of them were water creatures. Whales were seen swimming in the air. Manta rays flying through the air. Schools of fishes staying in a tight formation.

The leader couldn't believe it. This boy, one who they thought couldn't use magic, was using magic. Not only was he using powerful spells. He even showcased all four affinities, something that only the Sage of the elves had done before. Accepting his fate, he knew nothing they did could stop him. Atlas' Death's Aura was stronger, he had better mana control and he was able to use magic to such a higher degree than all of them. As he closed his eyes, he hears Atlas' final words to them.

"Do not worry, I have promised Abe that I will save stop the First Prince and save the Beast Kingdom. Die knowing that your time working on the Project was not wasted."

As he finishes, the water creature all turn to the group at the same time and charge at them. Hitting the group at full force over and over again. Some exploded from the impact while others survived but drowned from all the water.

With the facility members obliterated, Atlas continues through the sea of water and blood towards the arena.

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The last power up Atlas is missing is the ability given to him by the Dreamer's Blessing. Once that is given to him and he displays the shadow magic and the ability from the Dreamer's blessing, I will have his powers charted out so it will be easy to see. He will not get another power up until after Arc 4. He will just train his current powers until then.