Chapter 4 Powers

"What do you mean?" Jacob frowned as he asked.

"Those mindless creatures are not worthy of the title of a demon. At most, they are livestock for us to survive." *Sigh* Rose sighed and added, "Even he almost died fighting just one of them..."

"He?" Jacob asked, confused.

Rose smiled and raised her palm. *Vrrr* A green, spiky, and translucent substance manifested on her palm.

*Gasp* Cecilia gasped, surprised.

"What is that?" Jacob asked in amazement.

"Mana," Rose replied. She added, "A weapon or power we gained as we evolved."

"Mana? But out of all humans, there was no news about such power. How come you have that?" Jacob asked curiously.

Rose replied, "To survive in that place, this... is the bare minimum. I don't know if someone your age could grasp mana, but we need all the power we could get to survive."

Cecilia gently held Rose's hand as she asked nervously, "So can everyone also learn what you did?"

"No, it's different for each individual. The most common ones are Mana and chi. Mana is the manifestation of external power, controlling elements of the surroundings. Chi is the innate power of a human body, manipulating the chi inside our bodies. Finally, Memories. It's rare and cannot be learned because it can only be obtained through special and unique ways. Even I only got lucky and obtained a memory at the brink of death," Rose explained as she looked at the dumbstruck siblings.

"Well, to survive, we all need to unite so I will teach everyone these powers. But it is up to them if they could learn or how compatible they are," Rose added, smiling.

"Wait! What are memories?" Cecilia asked in a hurry.

"Oh, pardon me. Just like its name implies, it's a memory that we gain immediately unlike mana and chi. It feels like remembering something we had forgotten, but it's not our own memory. There was a story of a human back then; he gained a memory of a mountain destroyer beast, and overnight his fist could destroy a whole mountain. He died, though, got too confident and fought with a weakened demon," she explained.

'Does it mean...' Jacob thought.

"Brother..." Cecilia said in a soft tone, her eyes red while tears almost flowing down.

"Hmm? What's the matter?" Rose asked.

Jacob held Cecilia's shoulder, comforting her as he said. "The memory you're talking about, I think... I had gotten one. It's useless now, though."

"What?!!" Rose shouted in shock. "What memory? Is it a battle memory, a support memory, or a beast memory?" She added.

"I don't know, it just suddenly appeared in my mind. It was a humanoid black creature jumping around, wreaking havoc in each step. It was only the size of a rift bug, but one step shook the world," he explained, looking at Cecilia. Smiling, he added, "We were... being chased by the rift demo- rift bugs, and Cecilia was caught by them. I felt the power in my legs when I got that memory, so I kicked the rift bugs, and they all got blasted to smithereens... Along with my leg. Using my last leg, I grabbed Cecilia as I hopped away, sacrificing my last leg. Luckily, we were found by escaping refugees and survived till now."

'A humanoid creature capable of shaking the world... A beast... No, a demon's memory,' Rose thought in shock.

She then said, "Unfortunately, you lacked the proper body strength to support such power. If you knew how to manipulate your chi, you wouldn't have lost your legs."

"I'm sorry... It was all my fault," Cecilia clenched her fist, crying.

"No, you're not to blame; we survived, and that's what matters. My legs are a small price to pay for your safety," Jacob said, comforting Cecilia, embracing her.

Rose broke the emotional drama of the siblings and said, "it's not impossible for lost legs to be regrown. Even a beheaded body could regrow with mana, chi, memory, or valuable medicines. Unfortunately, I don't have any affinity for healing, and I lost all my medicines in the rift."

"Really?! It's possible to regrow his legs?!" Cecilia excitedly asked.

"Yeah," Rose smiled.

"Brother! Did you hear that?! It's possible for you to walk again!" Cecilia said, hugging her brother.

"Yes... Well, if it wasn't for those damned rifts making our technology useless, nanobots could easily replace my legs," Jacob said happily. "But is it really easy to heal these legs?"

"No, a healer is too rare, but if you could learn chi with the regeneration attribute and master it, it's possible to regrow your legs. But learning and compatibility with the so-called elements are different things," Rose explained.

"Oh..." Jacob looked dejected.

"It's not impossible, brother; it's you, so you could do it!" Cecilia said, cheering Jacob up. "So when can you teach us, Rose?" She added.

"I need everyone gathered so I could explain everything in one go, and we lack time, so after you gather everyone in this Citadel, I will begin teaching you all," Rose said. "But before that, tell me everything that happened... Why did it all come to this?" She added, pain visible in her tone.

*Sigh...* Jacob sighed as he thought of what to say to Rose. After a few minutes of silence, he finally spoke, explaining everything that happened starting from the success of the destruction of laws and dimensions, destruction of Mars, and humanity's greatest downfall.

"Now... 34 years later, five thousand humans fought, survived, and lived to this day..." Jacob explained, his heart aching from pain.

Rose was silent after hearing such shocking news, unable to fully comprehend everything. Cecilia was silently crying, thinking about the experiences they all endured just to survive.

"Mother..." Rose whispered silently. "I... was one of the children that was given false glory, and was instead fed into the maws of hell just for their own goal. I regretted what I did; many times I wished it was all a nightmare. There's no peace there; I wasn't even an evolved, and even breathing slowly killed me. Yet I survived and became stronger as I vowed to destroy those fools once I get back... A pity they were the first victim of their idiotic ideals," she said, reminiscing the past horrors.

"We all had bad experiences; well done for us surviving till now. I'll go call everyone so that we could learn and fend off for ourselves as fast as we could. Thank you," Jacob said, bowing slightly. "Now please rest while we prepare everything," he added.

"Mhmm," Rose nodded as Jacob and Cecilia left her alone.