The Prince of Rainier

AETHER NIGHTBLADE

"And salute." I commanded all the Users, as the Prince of Rainier passed through the crowd and headed for the Lapis fortress.

He seemed to be an year older than me or maybe the same age. He was shorter than me and had blonde hair with green eyes. He was of light brown complexion and he had a well-developed body.

He carried a greatbow in his hands and a quiver filled with arrows on his back. The way he walked gave of an aura that reminded me of a…

"A leopard?" I turned to see the source of the voice, it was Nevera. "Yeah, I'm surprised you read me."

"I have known you the longest out of all of us here."

I knew him for as long as I could remember.

"What do you think of him?", he asked me while maintaining his posture.

"Something about him doesn't sit well with me, anyways, he should be weaker than us." I said nonchalantly.

His forces paraded behind him, their dark green banner held high up and following their tail came the dwarven Princess Ernsta Earthwald with her dwarven forces, their golden banner held equally high up.

"Salute." I commanded once again as she passed through. She shot me a look at the sound of my command and then turned away.

"She seems harmless.", Nevera said while looking towards the fortress. "Yeah probably."

With their parading ceremony over, it was now time for the marriage ceremonies to begin. And it began with Prince Albaine's speech. He was standing on the open gorge tower and looking down at all who had assembled. The moat was temporarily filled with snow and the gates were open.

He cleared his throat and began.

"Greetings to all that have gathered here, today I come here not only as the Prince of Rainier, not only as the leader of the resistance in the West, but also as a son and an independent man. I am honouring both House Rainier and Clan Lapis by making a promise that runs deeper than any other, a promise of blood. Even in war it is blood that is shed and even in peace it is blood which connects people, blood is a fundamentally important element in our lives. I will make sure that both our bloods benefit and rise to greater levels."

He seemed to be smiling while he said that last part.

(…is he a creep?)

"I am sure that you would love to know that I, Albaine Degarmo have ascended to being a yellow core mage with 2500 FV!"

He was proud about his 'achievement' and said it with a great amount of energy.

The crowd was (not) taken by surprise. Some shrugged it off while others were just listening plainly. Yellow core…

[I went into deep thought]

I was reminded that people other than Users could manipulate too. Humans, Elves used mana and spiritual energy to harness, conjure and heal. Yakshas were a different deal.

During my time in the Classrooms, I read many books that weren't part of the curriculum. And in one of them I was reading about various applications of mana and how races around the world used them.

A regular being- a human could be classified as per his core development with 7 classes in total.

Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet.

Since everyone could manipulate mana upto some extent, most people were red core beings.

Adventurers, Hunters, Explorers and Soldiers and Mages were people who made use of their mana cores were often.

While Adventurers, Soldiers and Hunters focused mainly on development of physical stats and skills, Mages and Explorers were devoted to core development. This did not mean that the former did not have developed cores or did not develop their cores like the latter.

The people who came under the first category were placed into the Exon Class. They were broadly called Exon Class cultivators

The people who came under the second category were placed into the Intron Class. They were broadly called Intron Class cultivators.

Once an Intron cultivator devoted themselves to core development, they could not take up the path of physical development. Since core development demands a mana contract, once the contract was made there would be no turning back.

This is why Intron cultivators were practically non-existent. Most humans would take up the physical path because they could do core development whenever they wanted.

Once someone mastered both of the things, they were placed into the Pi Class.

There were humans who progressed from Red all the way to Violet, although only about ten in every million humans make it to violet. Considering that there were only about two million pure blood humans, violet core humans were rare.

As an aftermath of the wars fought over thousands of years, the population of humans had dwindled. New races had come up and those who failed to adapt went extinct.

Humans were greatly affected. Although humans were found in almost every continent, they were very few in number, humans were naturally weak and easily manipulated.

But there were those who always fought with their lives on the lines to get stronger. Those who trained and advanced mana stages.

Those few humans who make it to Violet all the way from Red could push themselves further and ascend to White. These people were called Ascenders.

There were only 10-15 humans who were given this title. The reason is that a person could be born with any core. He could start from Yellow or maybe from Blue or Orange or Green or even Violet.

Those who were born with Indigo cores or Violet cores were usually having some form of autism.

These special beings were called Lightbringers and we were taught that they were often very powerful opponents to deal with in combat. They did however, have some restrictions placed on them by nature. Not only were most of them mentally retarded, the Lightbringers could never ascend to White cores for reasons unknown to this day.

Only those who have traversed through all the cores could ascend to White cores. Now a more intriguing question arises- what of those who are born as White cores? Well to this day, only 5 have ever been born that way and as it happens, they are all alive.

They were called Warbringers, partly because all 5 who had been born this way had caused a war between the continents for their ownership. A Warbringer exuded immense mana waves and high purity aura at birth.

Warbringers could embark on a journey to a place where only they could go, one which would make them weaker and weaker. After being born as a white core being, a person could choose to descend down the hierarchy of mana cores.

After one finishes the journey through all 7 cores and becomes a red core being, their strength is reduced by a very significant amount, their body often does not have enough energy to sustain itself which results in their death. Although there has only been one death to date, it is said that if you do not die and manage to survive somehow, you will reach a different dimension of power.

The power to manipulate the very foundations of reality.

A Black core. There has only been one black core being to this day and much is unknown about him. But alongside the manipulation of elements the being could manipulate truth, memories, soul and death. A truly terrifying power. Since there was only one to ever successfully reach this stage, there was no name designated for this class of beings.

In the book 'Thorough Study of Mana: Paragons of Cultivation' by the famous writer Rudger Chelsea, a prominent figure in the world of mana studies, he said 'Mana has its own will, the reason why some succeed in its mastery and some don't is that they don't have their own will, moreover it is truly a shame that this mysterious form of energy is limited only to humans; a species that is nearly extinct.'

This was the state of humans.

[Now back to the present]

The Prince was half user and half human I had heard, so that meant that he could manipulate both force and mana. He said a few things which I didn't pay attention to but then I had to return my gaze towards him upon hearing the sound of a bowstring being pulled.

Pulling his bowstring and conjuring an arrow of flame he took a stance, his hips lowered and knees bent, he aimed towards the sky.

"Witness, my people, the power of my greatbow!"

He then released the arrow, it tore through the air and then burst in flames lighting up the area underneath it in the night sky of Mystis.

"Let the feast begin!!", he shouted and walked out of our view.