The Rise Of Calamity

"What kind of contract did the both of you use?" my father inquired looking at both me and Olivia. Since Olivia was not allowed to say anything, she simply looked at me waiting for me to give an answer, while also slightly curious if I am going to tell them about the Divine contract.

"It's called a soul contract. It makes a connection between two 'flames of life' while either making one side submit to the other, or to make a fair or mostly fair contract between two parties. Really easy to use" I remarked with a thumbs up.

Hearing the phrase "soul contract" had made my father tense up a little before covering my mouth and whispering to my ear "Never speak of the soul contract or the flames of life outside of our home. Is that understood?"

Nodding lightly, he continued by asking "Who even told you about these stuff? You do know these are top secret within the country. Only those of the round table, the Grand Royal Forgers and Alchemic and high generals like me know about any of this. The rest would who know about this aren't even a part of the kingdom, but they are too powerful to silence."

"Juilam" Was all that I said

"..."

'That wolf is much more powerful than I thought. To know about flames of life, either he can see it with Transcendent soul eyes or- Wait... soul eyes'

Looking into his daughters eyes, he couldn't help but shiver a little. Soul eyes were a product of high soul efficiency and a certain gene. While I was born with soul eyes, mana eyes were a product that i had gotten later on, and the combination of both created the divine eyes. If I hadn't gotten the divine eyes, in the future I would have gotten the Transcendent soul eyes which allow a person to see the components and circuits of the soul.

While most could not see the soul flame from the point they waken their soul eyes, I had been able to see it. However, when I had finally activated my divine eyes and adapted it to what my body could handle, it was like there was nothing I could not see that was in front of me.

While humans, beasts, animals and basically every other race in existence has mana veins within them, every living creature also has Soul circuits which are connected to every inch of the human body as if they are neurons transmitting information from and to every single cell. Circulating that soul energy within you with battle intent, killing intent, or even bloodlust with create a battle aura, that can be further enhanced with the use of one's will, in this case being mana. Mana will allow the person to control a certain element, consequently having better control with certain elements over others due to the rule of affinity.

The weaker your affinity to an element, the more diverse your mana will be. However, the more powerful you become with the element that you have an affinity towards, the more that person will see their power with other elements diminish.

Due to the rules of affinities, one cannot become more powerful in an element they did not obtain an affinity over. If it does happen, their power will be crippled, making them unable to wield anything but mana without any elements, ever again. This also means that they will not be able to use any of their elements when using their battle intents and aura's.

This also links to why most people with two affinities, especially affinities that do not coincide with each other, usually remain weak for most of their lives. While on the one hand, having two affinities means that both affinities will always be as strong as each other, consequently also meaning that a person's progress will be halved. This can be avoided if one is able to make both element work as one, like in the case of my mother. However, my mother was able to fuse her elements from the day she was awakened, stripping her of the majority of her power over water and air and fusing it into a single element, in my mother's case being the ice element. On the other hand, having both water and fire as affinities just cripples your advancement, as one element does not support the other.

'Wait, did she lie to me? Wait no. She wouldn't know that it is called the 'Flames of life', but at the same time, I can confirm that she can see soul energy at least.' My father thought to himself.

"Are you able to see these flames of life?" My father whispered in my ear

"Well, slightly? I kind of see an outline of a flame with some kind of energy coming out of it, disappearing in the the body and coming out again. It's kind of hard to explain" I lied through my teeth.

*sigh*

"Well, it doesn't matter anyway. Let's just get a move on to the district of waves so we can reach the academy quickly." My father said while getting up from his crouched position and walked towards the carriage which was thankfully not damaged in all that fighting due to it's passive shield.

Getting on the carriage without having to hear my brothers complain much, we had resumed our journey to the district of waves, and more specifically, aqua city. The academy was just called Aqua academy, and while I might call them out for lacking imagination, having the word "Aqua" already tells you exactly where you would want to find the academy unless you are stupid beyond saving.

The academy was near a shore at the east edge of the continent, meaning we would have to pass multiple kingdoms on the way. Thankfully, our town was only 1 or 2 days away from the district of waves, and the journey that would usually take around 3 days from one side of the district to the other, is only 3 gold coins per person away from an instant arrival.

Apparently since the whole district is controlled by the emperor, noble families, no matter if they are minor or large noble families, are able to spend 3 gold coins per person to use a dimensional warp to any place within the district.

Simply sitting on top of the carriage watching the sun set in the horizon, everyone within the carriage kept mostly quite. While my father had tried to ask Olivia a few questions, she only obliged by answering in short precise yet open ended answers with no definitive meanings. Realising that she was being secretive, my father felt hesitant to let her go with us, however, with a single stare from me he chose to not further the thought.

After around 5 hours of moving, we finally decided to find an inn for the night in one of the nearby villages. Driving the carriage into a carriage lot at the back of the inn, many people started giving us stares. I assumed that it was because it was their first time seeing a carriage that could drive without a horse, but even when the carriage was not around, and we were within the building, we were still getting the same stares.

"Dad. Why are they looking at us like that?" I nudged my father.

Even though Olivia knew the answer and would have usually chosen to answer it, she had found no obligation to and at the same time, was curious as to what a noble would think was happening.

"Well, to be honest there might be multiple reasons. While some might be poor and might want to beg us for some, others might be either just curious about us or our extravagant clothes. While what we are wearing might not seem as much as what we usually wear when we go to noble parties, it is important to know that not everyone has the pleasure of having a warm home, warm clothes, shoes to walk with and food to eat. You have to realise how lucky you are to be born into this kind of family, and whenever you feel angry at your family members, angry at me or your mother for not getting you something you wanted, or even angry at some of the cards life gives you, remind yourself that you at least have a family, a roof over your head, standard warm clothes and a predictability within your life that tells you there will be food for you to eat" My father lectured the three of his children.

Hearing what my father had said, Olivia's eyes slightly widened while shortly after, a blossoming smile curled up the corner of her lips, giving off the radiance of how truly beautiful she was behind the mask of a cold hearted person she usually put on.

{Thank you WitchOfAgony, Flame_Trivk, MerkurySol, Play_destruction, LovelyDat, dameoncottrell1, NighT, LightBladeMaster, FujiFlam and Godly_death for all continuously supporting my novel and voting for it every single day. I appreciate it a lot, so thank you very much :).... While I kinda wanna make this a thing at the end of most of my chapters, I know it can get annoying for those who read using the text to speech/ those who listen to the novel, so from now on, I'll be putting this in the "Author's Thoughts".}