“So…you have an Ice Soultrait?”
Alice’s words rang through Michael’s ears, and he broke into a cold sweat almost immediately.
He knew very well that it was getting more difficult to hide his Soultraits from the people around him. It was already quite weird for him to possess five Soultraits, but everyone knew that he had been inside a Lord Rift. Thus, he could have procured a Soultrait Symbol from there. If his contribution was extremely high Michael could have procured two Soultrait Symbols from the Lord Rift.
However, Michael knew as well as anyone else that the probability was extremely low. He didn’t really want to lie to Alice Zenovia, but he didn’t feel at ease revealing Extraction to her.
It was not that he didn’t trust Alice, or Kaleb, but it was a fact that they were members of the Zenovia household, a Superior family that controlled their lives. From the day Alice and Kaleb were born they’d been raised as future powerhouses of the Zenovia family. They were conditioned to act in the Zenovia family’s favor, train every single day and do everything necessary to expand and grow their family’s business and influence – whether that was through marriage or other means.
Michael was not yet certain how much control the older generation held over Alice and Kaleb. However, he could tell that Kaleb had been suppressed before they met each other. Kaleb had already been engaged even before he Awakened. While his engagement might have been terminated it was a fact that Kaleb’s family had already found him a fiancée long before he was legally considered an adult.
Michael didn’t know what would happen once he told them about Extraction’s power. He might gain many benefits, such as Alice and Kaleb’s full support in terms of influence, wealth and knowledge, but it might also backfire. The older generation such as the patriarch might kidnap and imprison him to ensure that nobody else would find out about Michael’s power. It was obvious that nobody would want to share a power like Michael’s and keep it for themselves. All families would want to have monopoly over his power. Thus, the families would give their utmost to tie him to themselves – or to ensure that nobody could get him.
None of those options sounded nice. Thus, Michael only told the Forest Elves about his powers so far. The Forest Elven Tribe was nowhere close to their Stellar System. The tribe’s Awakened were also nowhere close to the human territories in the Origin Expanse. There was close to no chance for them to take advantage of Michael after he revealed his power. That was ensured through the Links of Loyalty he created with the EmeraldLeaf Adventurer team and the fact that he was the Lord of thousands of Forest Elves by now.
One wrong move from the Forest Elven Tribe, and he could kill the Forest Elven Adventurers and Summons – which would be the worst that could happen to the Forest Elven Tribe since they valued their ancestors more than most races.
It was not that Michael trusted the Forest Elves more than Alice and Kaleb, but the circumstances around the Forest Elves were more in Michael’s favor. In the worst case, Michael could kill the EmeraldLeaf Adventurer team to cut all ties with the Forest Elven Tribe. But the same couldn’t be said about the Zenovia family.
“I got it in the Lord Rift,” Michael revealed truthfully while leaving out the most important pieces of information.
“Is that so? You don’t look like you’re lying, but that’s not all…” Alice mumbled, almost as if she could read his mind. She smiled lightly at Michael and nodded her head in understanding, “Don’t worry, you don’t have to tell me everything. Just be careful, because many have started to observe you. I hope you can come to talk to me about your situation, and problems before you get into trouble. I want to help you, after all.”
Alice’s voice was not as cold as usual. On the contrary, her voice was filled with warmth and kindness. It was rare for Alice to reveal this side of herself, so rare that Kaleb ended up staring blankly at his sister.
“You have many secrets, and you have no idea if you can reveal some of them, or if it will endanger you and the people around you. If your secrets ever grow too much to keep, talk to someone you can trust. After all, some secrets grow heavier the longer you keep them to yourself. But don’t worry too much,” Alice added, somewhat repeating herself.
Michael nodded his head, his head hanging lower. He rubbed the back of his head for a few seconds before he looked Alice straight in the face.
“You know about my brother, right?” Michael asked even though he knew the answer.
The Zenovia siblings nodded their heads simultaneously.
“Yes, I know. I was informed about his…demise…just before you entered the Lord Rift.”
“I know about it as well.”
𝗈𝗏𝓵xt.𝚌𝐎𝓂
Michael forced a smile on his lips. He didn’t want to talk about his Soultrait right now. However, something told him that he would feel better if he talked a little bit about his brother. It had been a while since he thought about his brother intensely, and something deep within told him that he was a bad brother for rarely talking about Danny.
“Well, our parents abandoned us after Hesta disappeared. Oh. Hesta is our elder sister. She was the pride of our parents. After Hesta disappeared our parents abandoned us. We were still quite young and we had to look after ourselves…” Michael said as a matter of fact.
He continued to reveal more about his past, and how he and his brother grew up.
“…Then I summoned a 4-Star Summon called Masked Saber. We established a Link of Loyalty the moment I summoned him. He could control silver energy that looks like Sword Qi. I trained with him for several months…. We fought together…and we entered the Lord Rift together….Targeted by the Red Dragon, he sacrificed himself… and it was only after his mask shattered that I realized that Masked Saber, the 4-Star Summon, was actually my brother…who was resurrected right after dying in the Sacred Desert….”
Michael was not sure why, but he didn’t cry anymore. His voice cracked after talking too long about his brother, and sadness overwhelmed him, but no tear escaped his eyes. He summoned the Reinforced Sword Qi in the form of a highly detailed Qi Sword and smiled sadly at it.
“And this 5-Star Soultrait, Reinforced Sword Qi, actually belonged to my brother. I received it for my contribution in the Lord Rift…”
Michael didn’t look at Alice or Kaleb anymore. He was also not sure where they were at this moment. At some point, Alice and Kaleb had pulled him away from the center of the Underground Colosseum. He also subtly recalled that Thaor, Mekhaz, and Lokai had been talking to him, but the memories dispersed the moment he recalled them.
All that had been flashing through his mind was the need to talk about Danny. It was weird, creepingly weird…but it didn’t feel too bad to talk about Danny with someone other than Tiara. On the contrary, it was oddly liberating.
“The Will rewarded you with your brother’s Soultrait…that has to be a cruel joke…” Kaleb mumbled after he stared blankly at Michael for more than half a minute.
Michael almost never talked about himself, and he finally understood why. Kaleb always envied ordinary families for their lives because they didn’t have to carry heavy responsibilities from the moment they were born. However, Kaleb didn’t envy Michael’s life. He felt bad for envying Michael in the past, instead. Kaleb felt like the worst human being for being jealous of Michael when he didn’t know anything about his friend’s past.
Digesting Michael’s story took a while. It was a sad story, filled with a lot of drama. Yet, Kaleb couldn’t help but feel like a jerk for secretly feeling happy that Michael was willing to share his burden with them.
He noticed that Michael avoided talking about the Soultraits he manifested in the Origin Expanse, but he told them a lot about himself, his relationship with his brother, and how close they’d been.
“It must have been hard on you. Thanks for telling us about your past,” Kaleb said, glancing over to Alice, who hadn’t said anything yet.
‘What’s wrong with her?’ Kaleb wondered when he saw Alice staring at Michael with a blank look on her face.
“Hesta…Hesta Fang…Wait. You’re Hesta’s brother?! The War Empress Hesta Fang??” Alice asked at last, her voice much louder than usual.
In fact, Kaleb couldn’t remember having heard Alice speak that loud, let alone that she would stare at someone looking utterly baffled. That was definitely not normal, and out of her usual character.
“War Empress? I don’t know anything about that. She must have been in her early 20s when she disappeared. I doubt that anyone called her a War Empress then,” Michael said, not sure if he and Alice were talking about the same person, “But it’s not like I care…not anymore.”
Alice regained her senses after her outburst. She noticed that she had hit one of Michael’s sore spots and pressed her lips together. She wanted to ask more about Hesta Fang, but it was also quite obvious that Michael didn’t know more.
But now everything made a lot more sense. If Hesta Fang and Michael were siblings everything would make sense.
Hesta Fang disappeared ten years ago. She had been an Awakened for less than five years, yet her combat prowess was among the most terrifying in all of mankind’s youngest generation. Hesta might not have been one of the fastest Awakened to reach the Peak of Tier-3, but she was as fast as the descendants even though she never had anyone backing her with resources and techniques. However, that turned her into an even more terrifying opponent than anyone else.
She didn’t have anyone backing her with resources, yet Hesta Fang was strong enough to defeat a group of Awakened from the Tekur race by herself.
And that was not all.
While Hesta Fang was still a Lesser Lifeform, she could handle a group of dozen descendants, who had already evolved by becoming Higher Lifeforms at the 4th Tier.
Words would fall short to explain her combat prowess. She was inhumanly powerful, earning her the title of a War Empress as a gift for her premature promotion to a Higher Lifeform.
However, on the day she advanced to the 4th Tier – evolving her lifeforce to the next level –, Hesta Fang disappeared.
And now Hesta Fang’s younger brother who was just as inhumanly powerful as his sister had been rumored to be was standing in front of her.