10. 7 years later

When Seraph's achievement was made known to the kingdom and empire he was paraded around like a circus animal. He met the King of Ariadel and received The Silver Seal of the Winskor Empire. It basically made him a six year old noble. He even received a letter of recognition from the Sky Summit Institute, the highly accredited school that even existed as a separate country.

At seven he created his second totem. Around that same time rumors started to spread that the 4th young master was acting strangely and walked around wearing a blindfold.

At ten he created his third totem. The spotlight was no longer as bright. Now it was no longer a rumor and it known that he was very violent.

At eleven, he assaulted one of his mother's maids and was beat within an inch of his life by his father who finally snapped at his behavior.

And now in the present where Seraph was 13.

Currently he was an outcast of his family. His violent and lustful tendencies made him unapproachable. Even Sarah who was so close to him grew apart. She was now the shining star. She has a special constitution associated with star constellations. Cal said it was the Zodiac Phoenix Pillars. But only Seraph was aware of that.

At a lake about 15 miles south of Agean in Rubin's forest, a young teenager sat by the shore whittling a stick. A horse with antlers was resting nearby twitching it's ears occasionally. A small fire cooking a few fish was in front of the boy, swaying to a beat of its own. They were Seraph and Artax.

Over the seven years they both went through some changes.

Artax had grown and was the size of a normal horse from Earth. His hooves were now spotted in a shiny silver and his eyes seemed to have stars swirling within his iris.

Seraph was starting to develop a rough, manly face like his father but he still had the soft eyes and thin build he inherited from his mother. He had a light tan now and the roots of his hair had turned silver after he created his third totem. Even with the dark circles under his eyes he was considered handsome.

It was a peaceful scene by the lake shore.

[This place is so boring let's go to bar and start a fight.]

Cal was still as obnoxious. Seraph could handle him a bit better now that he could control his soul better and understood Cal a bit more. Cal went through cycles where his strength rose and fell gradually. It could be measured by the amount red in Seraph's eyes, but it seemed only Seraph noticed the change. When his eyes turned completely red, Seraph would black out and Cal was in complete control of his body. The random spurts of movement came to an end after a few years when Seraph gained better control of his soul. The most important part he learned was how important it was that Cal couldn't lie and how he hated his intelligence being insulted. This was how he learned what his sister's constitution was. A few taunts and he violently spewed the answer.

[Hey, little monster, don't f*cking ignore me.]

"Me acting on your impulses does nothing to improve my overall shitty situation."

[Don't be such a mopey d*ckhead. You already drink like a fish, why not take up some other vices.]

Seraph went back to ignoring him. The drinking was to sleep all through the night, otherwise Cal's torturous nightmares would keep him awake all night. He was a thirteen year old alcoholic.

He always came to this lake to relax after one of Cal's berserk states. Cal had used Seraph's body to physically assault 67 people and rape 4 women. Only Seraph knew he wasn't at fault. Those numbers would be a lot higher if he didn't learn to check his eyes now and started locking himself away when it was close. This greatly angered Cal and every once in a while, manical screaming could be heard from his courtyard. This was the only thing that improved his relationship with his family since he could now tell when he was about to go crazy. Though he couldn't catch it all the time.

This last time he wasn't so lucky and Cal got him by surprise. He nearly killed three people today and ripped the clothes off of a young servant girl before he was subdued and locked in his courtyard. A somewhat normal occurrence now, but with his coming of age ceremony in a week's time, his father was extra angry this time. Guests had already started arriving and a few the Incident.

Hence why he had run away to this lake before his father got to him.

He was now a 4th stage soul apprentice and Artax was at the 6th stage so they both had a moderate amount of strength. Artax was now very fast and peak soul apprentices wouldn't dare take his soul attacks straight on. Seraph didn't have a specialty besides maybe gardening and befriending beasts.

Artax's totems were

1. [Spirit Steed]

- Base Species Totem

2. [Soul Blooming Spirit Tree]

- Increase soul resilience

- Manipulate souls(illusions)

- Increase strength of spirit totems

- Nurtures growth of the spirit totems

- (Variant)Increases original abilities and increases control over the souls

3. [Phantom Hooves --> Void Hooves]

- Increase speed

- Lowers presence

- Silent Steps

- (Variant) Teleportation (uses a lot of energy). Increases basic abilities

4. [Wild Eye --> Chaos Eye]

- Increases sight

- Increase Soul abilities with eyes

- Intimidating Stare

- (Variant) Increases basic abilities. Grants ability Chaos Stare which confuses enemies into attacking anything nearby.

5. [Soul Cloud --> Soul Storm]

- Nourish the soul

- Increase soul resilience

- (Variant) Increase basic abilities. Stable Mind.

6. [Equulei --> Equuleus]

- Improves overall physique of horses

- (Variant) Increase basic abilities. A lord among horses.

Everytime either Seraph or Artax created a new totem, the grey fog in Seraph's soul always invade it and evolve it.

Seraph only had one totem that directly influences his battle strength. When he was creating his second totem, his father set up an array using soul pieces from beasts who were once familiars so Seraph could walk the Esprit path of beast masters. Seraph connected to a totem called Forest's Keeper, which mutated into a totem called The Gardener. His father was angered again since it sounded so weak but Seraph knew better. It took six months for his father to believe him about the totems abilities. All that went down the drain when his father showed up with a beast called Scarlet Flame Bear and Seraph refused to take it as a familiar. His reason was he just didn't want to take it as a familiar but his father thought it was just a child's lie and left.

By the time he was ready to create a third totem, the crazy scenes were at their worst and his father refused anyone to aid Seraph. His third totem was the Winged Silver Troll. Originally just a plain silver troll. The silver troll was built in a more like a human stature than most trolls and was considered an intelligent species. It stood and walked on two feet and wasn't near as bulky. It was still incredibly strong with a troll's amazing regenerative power the silver troll's space and illusion abilities.

His fourth totem, which he had only formed a few months ago, was the strangest of all. It was the Soul Tribe totem. It was the evolution of the Soul Partner totem and it was focused on strengthening his familiars more than himself.

He had created a journal with all the abilities he had discovered his totems possessed.

1. [Soul Blooming Spirit Tree]

- Increase soul resilience

- Manipulate souls(illusions)

- Increase strength of spirit totems

- Nurtures growth of the spirit totems

- (Variant)Increases original abilities and increases control over the souls

2nd: [Forest's Keeper --> The Gardener]

* Support Type

* Beast are more accepting

* Allows 3 familiars (13-variant)

* Increases abilities when fighting in a forest or alongside a beast

* (Variant) Can influence a beasts cultivation directly if they allow it. Increases all original abilities. Able to speak/understand plants.

3rd: [Silver Troll --> Winged Silver Troll]

* Transformation Type

* Increase strength and flexibility

* Intimidating roar

* Increase physical senses

* Increase Regeneration/healing

* Gives slight affinity for space and illusions

* (Variant) Has wings capable of short time of flight. Increase basic abilities.

4th: [Soul Partner --> Soul Tribe]

* Increase abilities and potential of familiars

* Can establish soul contracts

* (Variant) Can store familiars in soul to appear as markings on the body. Increases other abilities. All members of the tribe benefit from each other's cultivation.

It seemed like Seraph was on the path of creating a team instead of increasing his own personal strength. And his ether points reflected it too.

With 4 totems created, he could open 48 points. Though since he only recently created the other totem, he had only opened 40.

He had opened the two in his eyes so he could practice Eyes of Multitude Mysteries. He opened a meridian in his glabella since all the martial arts books he read on earth put so much importance on it. It strengthened his soul and his forehead. He also opened 25 along his spine that strengthened his spinal cord, the spine itself, and increased his flexibility. Seraph had quick reflexes as a result. He also opened one at the top of his head, two at the base of his skull, two on each shoulder blade for his 3rd totem, one in each palm of his hand, one each knee, and once when Cal had taken control he opened a point right above the start of Seraphs penis. Seraph was pissed when he came to and found out about it. What seven year old needed that ether point!

Seraphs main focus on his ether points was to increase his flexibility and reflexes. He had no plans on being a frontline fighter, much to the disappointment from his father. Seraph was just satisfied he could open his ether points with his gray fog Qi in his soul space. He still hadn't found a proper cultivation technique and only naturally circulated his Qi.