FM Chapter 13

Remember this is an original novel written by Addis of ExR. This is not a translation.

Chapter Thirteen

The twelve dragons wrapped around Kai sparkled like diamonds in the light. Their iridescent dragonfly like wings buzzed with each movement. Since they were connected to Kai on a physical and mental level, when they felt Kai’s anger rising, their bodies began to turn a light red color. Two of the twelve dragons lunged forward and bit down on the hands that were touching Kai.

Shocked, both Cian and Sitross pulled their hands away as they felt their skin burning. When they looked down to where they were bitten, there were two sets of puncture wounds on the back of their hands. Around the teeth marks, the skin was black, burned by the fire Element within the small dragon’s teeth.

“I apologize Kai,” Sitross began, remorse flickering in his old eyes. He rubbed at the wound on his hand until his Elements began to heal the broken skin.

“It was this geezers fault.” Cian harumped as he crossed his arms over his chest, tapping his foot indignantly on the ground. Acting like a teenager instead of the calm and collected headmaster he often portrayed, Cian muttered to himself quietly.

Catching his breath once more, Kai continued to glare at the two older men. Although he had struggled within the pressure, he had still heard the entire conversation that had occurred between them. With his hand against his heart, as if it would calm the raging beating from within, Kai spat, “Even if you two are Master and Disciple, there’s no reason to test each other. Think about others before you start a pissing contest.”

Cian and Sitross stood frozen in place, staring at Kai with wide eyes. This was the first time they had ever heard Kai get mad. It was also a first to hear the young man cuss. Due to his small stature, Kai could be mistaken as a fourteen year old, not his true age. With his pale skin, large eyes and rosy cheeks, he could easily pass off as a girl if his hair was longer. To hear such a sentence from a childlike face was more astonishing than the actual words Kai had used.

While Cian and Sitross stood frozen in shock, Kai continued to rant, no longer acting like the cute little boy the two were used to. “I mean seriously, how old do the both of you think you are? You have a grudge against one another? Why? Just get over it and make up. Peeing like dogs will do nothing. You might as well pull your dicks out and measure to see who is bigger. Why do grown men have to have such ridiculous grudges for stupid things? Goddamn, grow up.”

With that statement lingering in the air, Cian and Sitross stood frozen with no face left to hold their heads high. Their heads dropped as if they were two small children that had been yelled at by their mother.

As if they were thinking the same thing, Cian and Sitross both looked over at each other and the both heaved large sighs. Brushing aside everything that was in their hearts, the two looked at Kai with small smiles on their faces.

“I apologize again, young one, this old man dredged up something that should have been dealt with years ago.” Sitross bowed slightly towards Kai. But when he looked back up at Kai, Kai’s face had drained of color and his eyebrows were scrunched together in confusion. Seeing this look, a Sitross asked, “What’s wrong?”

With a pale face and confused expression, Kai answered, “How come, until the moment these dragons appeared, I felt as if there was a wall of ice blocking something in my head? And just now, it shattered.”

Concerned, both the older men looked at each other before taking another step towards Kai, almost hesitant to get closer due to the dragons.

An arm’s reach way, his green eyes flashing as his brain turned with theories, Cian asked, “What do you mean?”

Biting his lower lip until it began to turn white, Kai looked at Cian with his large cat-like eyes, blinking solemnly. “It’s like I didn’t care about anything that happened to me before. Until whatever it was shattered, it almost felt like being a doll without a say.”

The glance Cian and Sitross shared showed their concern. Sitross tried to clarify, “You mean personality-wise?”

The two watched the younger man as be continued to bite his lip. Thinking of everything that had happened since he woke up within the forest, Kai nodded his head, “That too. But it almost felt like my soul was split in half and I was not really me. I don’t know how to explain it.”

Fractures in the soul were not an uncommon thing. Anyone who others called crazy or insane were usually so due to part of their soul being fractured, or missing completely. However, while a fractured soul could be slowly repaired with medicinal pills or by one’s own Element, a shattered or cut soul would usually fade away. The only possible way for a soul to be repaired was if it was still connected, even by a thread. Cian knew these theories, but he also knew that the way Kai was describing it, as if his soul was being forcefully blocked, to him, it sounded like it was the work of a third party.

Not saying this out loud, Cian clicked his tongue.  “That’s odd,” he breathed. He then looked at his master who had been by his side for almost sixty years, “Sitross, do you know anything about this?”

As an Elf, Sitross had a higher perception towards souls and anomalies that could occur within someone’s mind. He had always thought it odd that the boy seemed to not have a personality, but he had thought this was due to being in a new environment and that he was too shy to act as a normal teenager would have. Now that he thought back, there had been signs that everything was not as it should be. He had been so excited about the boys potential that he had overlooked something as serious as a memory and personality disorder.

Thinking along these lines, Sitross’ old eyes crinkled as he squinted, “Hmm. Let me see.” He muttered to himself as he reached out and grasped Kai’s hand before inserting his Elements into the boy to search for the reason behind the sudden change in personality.

Reminding Kai to stay calm and let the Elements course through his body, Sitross let his energy weave through Kai’s meridians until he reached the younger boys core. There he found something he had not noticed before.

Within Kai’s core was a large gem like sphere that pulsated with every color imaginable. Even though he had manifested his power as the dragons on the outside, each one was still linked to the large core with thin threads that looked like spider silk. Noticing that one of the threads carried a brighter, more vibrant light than the rest of the threads, Sitross began to understand what exactly had occurred.

Pulling back his energy, Sitross explained, “It seems as though each dragon has a small part of his soul locked within it and only one has been reconnected.”

His eyes widening in surprise, Kai muttered, “These guys are my soul?” He reached out to the closest dragon and touched it’s shiny head. The dragon chirped in response happily, but other than that, nothing else happened.

The older two shared a look and seemed to communicate through their eyes before Sitross continued, “There is an ancient array that could be placed on a soul. We no longer have this array, but there are records of what it could do. If this array is placed on a discontent soul, the soul will be broken into parts to prevent the soul from shattering itself. The array works as a binder, it traps each soul fragment, allowing the person to live, but the person will no longer be who they once were.”

“How can we reverse the array?” Cian asked, worrying for this boy. He felt a strange sense of protectiveness towards Kai that he had never felt before. Although he didn’t mind the feeling, he was bothered that it wasn’t a conscious decision.

“As you know, when an array is cast by someone, only those of stronger power can break it. This array is beyond my ability.” Sitross sighed in despair.

Cian looked at the fragile boy before him and tried to think of a way to help him become whole again. While his split soul seemed to currently have no irreversible negative effects, it was still something that may or may not become detrimental in the future.

“But how did one part of his soul reconnect?” Cian muttered. Kai was sitting in the chair, watching these two older men toss words back and forth. It seemed, while they were not bickering, they got along pretty well.

Kai wondered the same question that Cian had asked. He remembered that when he had found his way out of the forest, he had been barely clothed and had been wounded by the area around him. He had felt like he was floating within a dream, all that he was worried about was the hunger within his stomach. Kai knew from the moment he woke up that something was strange, but because he had no memories, he thought that had been the cause. But, when he woke up for the second time, what had changed? What made him start to think for himself?

“My cultivation,” Kai whispered, his eyes darting up with excitement.

Cian and Sitross stopped talking and looked over at Kai, light bulbs going off inside their brains. They looked at each other excitedly as they exclaimed, “His cultivation!”

Sitross’ eyes gleamed when he asked Kai, “You said you woke up in a forest. Do you remember what your cultivation was then?”

A small smile of excitement on his face, Kai responded, “I didn’t have one.”

His eyes glowing brighter and brighter, Sitross began to mutter under his breath, “Whoever set this array made it so that it could be broken from within. As his cultivation continues to grow, his soul will reform. Once his soul is complete, he should get his memories back.”

With each fragment of his soul reforming, this meant that his personality would become free and he would no longer feel as if he was bound by chains.

But, at what level of cultivation would the next fragment be reconnected?

Kai was at the very beginning of the Vortex stage. Would he have to wait until his Core was complete? Or when he began to gather Body Essence? If that was so, then he would only be able to regain his memories if he reached the Empyrean or True God stage. Those were only legends.

Even Cian, who was a level stronger than Sitross, and the strongest person in the Ludum Empire was only a Celestial King. He had spent over a hundred years to reach that level and he was considered a top tier genius in the last one thousand years. For him to reach the next level, he would have to spend a minimum of five hundred years, and then double that amount of time for the next level. Did that mean Kai must spend over a thousand years trying to regain his memories?

At that point, was it even worth it?