Ul'Tra-el

They both froze, exchanging puzzled glances.

"You heard that too?" The golden beauty asked.

Her lover grinned roguishly. "I definitely did. Perhaps we're so eager for a baby that we're hearing things."

She frowned. "No, it sounded quite rea–"

The man interrupted her with a kiss, then added with a crooked smile.

"It must be our future children announcing themselves." His hands suggestively caressing her rain-slicked body.

"Making love here will surely bless us."

"But dear, we've tried everywhere— the mall, rooftops, even bars! You said the same thing each time..."

His smile only widened at her complaint. "Yet did we hear a babe those other times?"

Biting her lip, she shook her head.

"No…"

The man broke into a grin at her response.

"Then are you still doubting me now?"

She sighed and shrugged.

"I guess we just have to see for ourselves then."

Her reluctance shifted to sultry heat as she wrapped slender arms around his thick neck, pulled his face to hers, and began kissing him hungrily. Her long legs also snaked around his muscular waist.

Meanwhile…

'These bastards are really having a go at it, huh! How about I watch a little and just when he is about to put it inside, I scream the whole place down.'

At least, that had been Elliot's plan, but he couldn't hold it in any longer. The impulse to scream was strangely something he had no control over.

He had been exposed to the cold for an entire night, he felt like his lungs were going to freeze up and all he wanted to do was just let out a deafening cry and disturb the entire world.

Maybe this was what babies usually had to do to feel heard. Although he wanted to hold it in and enjoy what he was watching, his impulse won.

A loud cry escaped the cluster of grass next to them, startling the couple.

"Oh bless Eldech! It wasn't all in our heads. Shin, it's a baby!"

The young lady exclaimed while her husband withdrew, his face heavy with disappointment.

She adjusted her clothes, covered her breasts, and shifted towards the grass beside them, digging through it with her hands.

Her eyes suddenly grew wide as she felt something. She wrapped her hands gently around it and pulled it out, only for her eyes to widen even more. Her husband also moved towards her, adjusting the strap of his trousers and tightening it.

"Wow… it's really a baby. And it wasn't just in our heads." He repeated.

She took the baby in her arms, her eyes shining with so much emotion.

"This silk…" Her husband intoned, "...I'm guessing her parents are really rich… nobility perhaps."

"What do we do?"

She turned her gleaming eyes to her husband, grasping the baby tightly in her arms.

Shin looked at his wife for a few seconds, the way her eyes were looking at him…

"...no…" He shook his head, "No no no, we can't do that, love."

"Come on. Do you know what might have happened to her parents?"

"We should look for a way to find her parents, not keep her. We can't keep her."

"Dear, it's a boy. You keep saying her." She corrected her husband with a giggle.

"And how exactly can you tell? Can't you see her eyes, her white hair… what boy has such beautiful eyes?" He retorted.

"Alright then… how about we make a bet."

Shin narrowed his eyes.

"You are going to use a bet to have it your way? Okay then, your loss because I'm very sure this little one here is a girl, I mean look at her eyes."

"If it's a girl, we look for her parents and let it all go, but if it's a boy, we get to keep him and I raise him as my son and never mention the origin of his parents, not to him, or anyone else."

"Alright then." Shin grinned. He was so sure that the baby was a girl.

Then carefully both of them pulled down the silk that was covering the baby.

Immediately they did, a sprinkle of liquid shot into the face of the husband, persisting for a while and before lowering. The baby giggled and jerked his leg with joy as he saw how he had soaked the young man's face with his pee.

"Oh oh, he's got a little whinnie here…" His wife said happily, playing with his little thing.

Elliott felt like he was being defiled but could not say anything.

While Shin looked dejected.

"Seriously, what boy has beautiful eyes like his?!"

He grumbled but soon went silent. And watched the way his wife adored the little baby, the beautiful look in her eyes as she gently swung him in her arms.

After a short while, he spoke:

"We will keep him. But should we discover who his parents are, please Eisha, let's not withhold anything and give him back."

She looked at her husband, sparks of joy dancing in her eyes.

"Yes, yes, I promise! We will!"

"Well then... what should we name him?" Shin inquired, looking into the child's enchanting blue eyes.

"You, give him a name. You are his father."

Shin thought for a while, looking around the forest, then an idea suddenly struck him.

"Northern! What about Northern? Since he was found in this Northern forest, we can honor the forest for giving us a child."

Eisha's expression contorted a little. She didn't look too sure about that name.

"Oh, well... I don't know... Northern sounds."

"Unique!" Shin added on her behalf.

Seeing the glow in his eyes, she yielded.

"Alright, fine. Northern, it is" She answered, rolling her eyes.

And that was how Elliott was found by a strange countryside couple and began his life as Northern.

–

For the past fourteen years, Northern had grown both in wisdom and social detachment.

Perhaps it was a consequence of his tumultuous past life; but he became aloof, coexisting with other children but never truly connecting with them.

Maintaining the facade of childhood was his greatest challenge, as he didn't want his parents to fret unnecessarily.

It was a delicate balancing act.

At the tender age of three, Northern began to learn about the language of his new world, beginning with its name: Ul'Tra-el, or Tra-el of Ul, depending on the alphabetical arrangement.

This name bore within it the essence of the world's history.

Under the tutelage of his father's hired tutor, Northern's initial lessons revolved around the lore of Tra-el.

It was believed that Tra-el came into existence through a cataclysmic burst of soul energy, birthing expansive landscapes and oceans, and outlining the heavens from the earth in a divine spectacle.

Everything about Tra-el exuded beauty, and notably, it possessed a voice—Ul—capable of conversing with all its denizens.

However, three millennia ago, an anomaly disrupted this idyllic world— interdimensional worlds, Rifts, first clawed their way into Tra-el's fabric.

These gaping gash in space linked Tra-el to chaotic parallel realms.

During the first rift's emergence, humanity had been ill-prepared, and after a fortnight, the spatial rupture birthed grotesque monstrosities that ravaged human life.

In the ensuing chaos, the first awakened individuals, imbued with extraordinary powers, emerged as pillars of hope, obliterating the abominations and heralding humanity's resurgence.

These gifted beings, initially revered as gods, eventually became known as drifters, as more individuals awakened to formidable talents and were drawn inexorably into the rifts' beckoning call.

Through resonance with Ul's fundamental Voice, these gifted beings transformed into living weapons— burning away the encroaching shadow.

As the Voice guided them into the Rifts, they took the fight directly to the enemy rather than await passive slaughter. Through soul-rending trials, their mythic crusade ultimately made things a little bit bearable.

From the moment Northern first heard of drifters, he resolved to become one, eagerly anticipating his own awakening.

The Call itself remained beyond willful control, he knew too well. Hearing Ul's Voice marked a soul-scouring First Awakening— a terrifying metamorphosis into a more elemental version of oneself.

Ul would forge a Soul Core within a person— an internal crucible to contain the even greater energies of the Second Awakening.

Only by answering a Rift Portal's Call could that ultimate power be unlocked, along with one's Talents, attributes, and dimensional name.

Awakening typically happened between ages fifteen and nineteen. Northern was turning fifteen in a few months, he was anxious to form his Soul Core and experience the Call.

In this forest patrolled by two wane moons— one a mere crescent skulking amidst the high clouds, the other bathing the woodland with unsettling intensity— Northern silently accompanied his adoptive father through the darkened wilderness while the man rode his steed, lost in thought.

Shin didn't glance back until he suddenly halted and dismounted in a single well-practiced motion.

"Come, climb up," he brusquely ordered Northern.

Scowling bitterly, Northern realized Shin only just now recalled his son walking the entire distance alone.

How typically self-absorbed. While the man clearly excelled combat-wise, common courtesy escaped him.

Still, fellow villagers deemed Shin a consummate warrior, his lethal skill was beyond question.

Through repeated clashes against monstrosities, did Northern begrudgingly agree that his father was or used to be a drifter.

The man proved cunning in battle despite his staggering obliviousness outside it.

"To think they called such a person a master."

Northern muttered derisively while clamoring awkwardly atop the horse's saddle behind his father.

Masters were revered mainly because they had reached the level where it was possible for them to resist the call of the rift.

Of course, they still had to go into the rift to challenge the hardships brought by other dimensions should they want to grow.

But they were well distinguished by their skill alone and were formidable warriors.

As they proceeded, Shin repeatedly stole glances at his son as if anxious to voice some revelation before thinking better of it each time.

This performance swiftly exhausted Northern's patience.

"What troubles you, father?" He asked pointedly.

"Nothing! My son. No, no, there's nothing wrong. I'm just thinking about it. But If it so happens that your Talent has to do with something about being a martial arts genius, our lives would literally change."

Northern looked at him, then averted his gaze.

"Is that so? How exactly?" He asked with a bored expression on his face.

What could his father say that he didn't already know? The kids in the village talked about it all day long.

Shin began immediately his son asked:

"As you know, talents are of different perks, there are some kinds of talent that you'll awaken that will open doors to an explosive growth rate for you, and there are some that would just make you stagnant."

"Like yours?"

"Northern! You will not insult my talent. It's an impressive one. You think it's child's play for me to be a master."

Northern looked at the excited man with a blank face.

Masters were vagrant-rank drifters, who were not affected by the strong call of the rift.

The young man no matter how stupid he looked used to be an amazing drifter.

"Anyways son, what I'm saying is you could even become a knight and be earning thousands of gold coppels, you know?"

"Yeah, but we can't really tell for sure, and talents are not supposed to manifest until fifteen, I'm just fourteen, remember?"

"Well, you'll be fifteen in a few months, you might be one of those early bloomers." Shin ascertained.

"Hmm, whatever. But don't get your hopes up too high, Father…"

Northern had his reasons for speaking that way.

Despite his father's optimism, Northern remained pragmatic, mindful of the uncertainty surrounding talent manifestation.

He harbored doubts about his own potential, wary of the possibility of disappointment.

After all, for Elliot, hope had proven itself to be a precarious notion, he had learned the hard way not to cling to it too fervently, lest it betray him— a lesson instilled in him by the hardships of his past.