The leader of the Abyssal Corrupted Wolves welcod all of them into the village. Darian brought everyone to the ancestral cave, then asked what had happened on the Academy planet.
"The whole planet went into complete chaos. All the Mannaz realized the Leader was a traitor thanks to you. The Academy Ancestors tried to stop him, but it was useless... they were all killed," Hyun said heavily.
Darian sighed. That place was now under the partial control of a Risen Lord.
"It all happened right after you left. After that, all the Elders who weren’t traitors joined forces to try sothing. With our emblems used together, it was technically possible to block off so areas of the Academy... but the Leader destroyed everything and killed half of them."
"In the end, the rest fled to the city. The Leader didn’t chase us — he was focused on solidifying the planet’s barrier. That’s when we t up with Ruoku and gathered all the Mannaz on the planet for one desperate attempt. The plan was to use corrupted weapons, artifacts, whatever we had in the cities, for a suicide attack on the Academy... we knew we’d die, but at least we’d burn through as much of the inscription’s energy as we could and weaken the barrier."
Niara nodded. The Leader would be forced to focus on taking them down. But... that ended up being unnecessary, since Darian had done it without help.
Lanalia added, "When we started the attack, that’s when we felt sothing was off. The Academy Leader didn’t use the inscription — he sent his Elders to block us. That’s how we were able to run and reach the dungeon to get those two out."
"After that, we found out you’d destroyed one of the inscription’s mbers, so we decided to make use of it. If you can destroy all four mbers, it’ll be way more effective than our sacrifice. All the Elders on our side supported us and helped. We ca so we could help you with that."
Darian scoffed. So they knew up to that point. The result of that suicide attack would only be known later. Sadly, a lot of people probably died for nothing — sothing he couldn’t have prevented.
"And what about the newbies inside the Academy?" he asked.
"The Leader gathered them all in the library and sealed them inside. They’re not a threat, so he left them there," Yeon answered seriously.
"Good. I won’t waste much ti before hitting the other places. Go get ready for battle. The wolves will help you. After that, I’ll need you for sothing very specific."
The four of them nodded and looked at the two young Mannaz still chained.
"I’ll handle things here, go on," Darian added.
They nodded and left the cave.
Darian let out a breath. anwhile, Niara quickly moved closer to the two souls.
The two looked at the Dragoness carefully, locking eyes with her.
"This is my partner. Her na is Niara..." Darian said and saw Lucy’s cold look and Lucius’ curiosity.
Darian sighed — his sister was a bit difficult. He rembered sothing important and said, "Do you rember the woman I told you about, the one who fought with her fists?"
Lucy nodded. That had been a turning point for her. She’d stopped trying — and failing — to fight with weapons. She started focusing on using her body, and it turned out to be really satisfying for her.
"I was talking about Niara. She might be able to help you with that. You wanted a few tips, right?"
Lucy sighed. Yeah, a man who fought only with his body wasn’t impossible to find. But a woman doing the sa fought completely differently — the focus wasn’t brute strength. That’s why Lucy wanted tips from an experienced woman.
Darian had said that, but he was pretty sure Lucy might end up disappointed. Niara fought on instinct, relying on her powerful Bloodline. Lucy didn’t have that, so she’d have to fight differently... but maybe that could help them understand each other better.
Lucy was incredibly distant with anyone she didn’t know or trust. Back when the clan people stayed at their house on Earth, she avoided talking to anyone as much as she could; when she had to, she always gave short, dry answers. Only after they started helping her train — and she saw her brother trusted them — did she start to change a bit.
"Let’s get to the point." Darian turned to the two young Mannaz. "I’m gonna take off those chains. Like I said, you’re free to choose what you wanna do..."
"S-Sir..."
The boy spoke, his voice trembling a bit.
"I want to fight..."
Darian nodded. He understood how important this was. Then he looked at the girl.
Her eyes were shaking, but she clenched her fists and said, "We can fight... we were born and raised for it..."
"I see." These two were the fated partners of the twins. Heaven’s Will wouldn’t pair them with soone weak or untrustworthy. Darian just wanted to confirm their resolve.
Niara stepped closer and started talking to the young Mannaz pair.
The boy’s na was Rion, the girl’s was Ariu. They were exactly as expected — born straight into suffering, used as experints by the Academy and the Kings of the three tribes.
They had managed to fuse the traits of all three tribes and create an atavism in the Enfield Bloodline. It was a true miracle, but the cost... probably because they were still young, they hadn’t suffered any serious consequences yet. But as the years passed, it would eventually show.
Still, Darian was sure he could fix it in ti.
After a few minutes, Darian turned to Lucy and Lucius:
"Form a contract with them, then I’ll help you create your physical manifestation. You don’t have ti to waste. Since you chose to co to this dangerous place, you’d better learn to fight properly. And, lucky you... the training level’s gonna be absolutely brutal."
"Yes!" both of them answered, strangely excited.
Darian broke the chains on all four of them, and they stepped forward. Lucy’s Summon was the Mannaz girl, Ariu. Lucius’ was the boy, Rion.
Both twins already had their spiritual roots awakened back on Earth — they just needed to fully accept the bond, then receive a bit of the Bloodline and form their first ring.
It only took a few minutes.
A red glow appeared on the foreheads of both souls. Lucy and Lucius were thrilled — they were now officially Spiritual Guardians.
The four of them turned to Darian. He nodded.
The slug moved; the red power from his ring flowed toward the two of them. It settled into their souls, condensing and solidifying into a subtle shell around them.
"Now it’s up to you two. You need to activate your rings to pull the planet’s elents toward you. The elental runes will rge with your souls and almost fully solidify, forming your body."
Darian explained calmly. It wasn’t hard — anyone who activated their ring along with their spiritual root would naturally be able to sense and move the elents a bit with a thought.
The only challenge was how good they were at using the ring and the spiritual root. The level and amount of elents would depend on each person’s potential.
They both let out a breath and focused.
...
The entire beast village changed.
Everything lit up with countless colored points. An imnse number of elental runes appeared, moving everywhere like a tide. They all converged toward the ancestral cave.
Niara smiled and Darian sighed.
It had been the sa for him — not surprising, those two had an ancestral awakening and their spiritual roots had also been altered by him... without him knowing.
"Don’t pull in everything — there’s a limit to what your body with one ring can handle," Darian said lightly. "Pick only the biggest and brightest runes — those are the higher-level ones. Then choose the elents you feel an affinity with."
Back then, Darian had also tried to pull in as much as he could — pointless. Later on, he ended up with runes from all elents, which was technically a mistake. Since he was learning everything, it would’ve been easier to focus on one or two elents; that way, his body would be more specialized and better at controlling those elents in the environnt.
In the end, though, now that he knew how to use his two rings, having all the elents turned out to be a good thing. But those two didn’t have that to help them.
Both of them nodded and focused. Inside the cave, there was a sea of tiny little stars glowing in all colors.
They picked carefully, pulling the runes toward their souls.
Once they hit their limit, their forms beca unstable and bright. To stabilize, they needed to shrink their size and choose a form.
Darian hadn’t had that choice — he’d picked too many elents without any knowledge or guidance. The only stable form he found was the slug. But the two of them could choose whatever they wanted.
Two intense lights filled the cave. Slowly, they shrank, the glow fading almost completely.
When the last spark faded, Niara brought a hand to her mouth — a stifled laugh escaping. Her eyes were sparkling with surprise.
Floating where the lights had been were two small, adorable forms.
Lucy was a yellowish caterpillar, her chubby body covered in a myriad of tiny runes glowing green and red. Lucius was another caterpillar, a deep purple one, with the exact sa symbols on his body, also in red and green.
Clearly, for so reason... they’d tried to be like Darian — soft, crawling, and full of vibrant colors.
They thought that form of their brother was really cool and cute. Niara thought so too — the three of them shared that peculiar taste, which Darian himself didn’t. But since they had more control and knowledge, the result looked much more like an actual caterpillar.
And yeah — no doubt about it, their bodies were Calamity level.
Darian took a deep breath, then shifted his focus. Now ca the hard part — their blessing.
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Author’s Note: Power Stones event! Check the rules below.
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