Elias sat cross-legged on the lush, grassy plains behind the manor, a well-worn Flow textbook open on his lap. Ortis had said he'd stay for a few days and test him but a week had already passed and the old man showed no signs of doing so.
He sighed and turned over to the next page. He wasn't reviewing old lessons. Today, he was trying something new, something different with his power. The book spoke of the crystalization of flow into gems. These were rare and were formed from the accumulation of residual Flow over centuries or more.
It was a basic concept, but he was experimenting, attempting to twist the Flow, to see how far he could push its boundaries. After all,it should be possible with his vast reserves of energy.
A shadow fell over him, cool and sudden. He looked up, his eyes narrowing.
It was Aina.
She stood there, her maid uniform stark against the vibrant green of the field, her expression as flat and unimpressed as ever. Elias slowly turned his attention back to his book, pointedly ignoring her and continued reading.
Aina didn't like being ignored. With a swift movement, she snatched the book from his lap.
"What are you reading?" she asked, flipping through the pages with a detached curiosity. Her eyes scanned the familiar diagrams, but then she paused, frowning. Nestled within the margins, and scrawled between the lines of advanced Flow theory, were Elias's own notes—equations and symbols in the language of his old world, utterly foreign here. Aina's lip curled.
"What is this gibberish? Are you intentionally trying to soil this book, you imbecile?" With a grunt of disdain, she threw the book back at him.
"Don't you dare ruin valuable knowledge with your childish scribbles!"
Elias slowly rose to his feet, a cold anger building within him. "What do you want, Aina?" he asked, his voice low.
She shoved him, not hard enough to knock him over, but with enough force to be insulting. "Respect your elders, boy! You're not that special."
Before Elias could retort, her hand shot up, and a sharp, blue light crackled around her fingertips. Lightning, raw and untamed, fizzed in the air. Elias instantly recognized it.
It was the same energy that had slammed into him the day before, during Ortis's "test."
"Among my various abilities," Aina stated, her voice cold and proud, "I can control electromagnetism. It's a very difficult 'Trait' for a Flow user to master, even for a Saint. But I am just that much better." Her eyes held a challenge, a silent dare.
"Why do you feel the need to tell me this?" Elias asked tilting his head, baffled by her need for validation.
"Because you have Mellou blood," she stated, as if that explained everything.
"I won't let you disgrace the House. Awakening early means nothing. It's as normal as breathing for us.It's about true power, true control."
As Aina continued to berate him, Elias's mind drifted, caught in a swirling vortex of flashbacks.
Ethan.
Bullied.
Weak.
He remembered the sting of fists, the humiliation.
Every.
Single.
Day.
The day he tried to stand up for himself and was beaten senseless. And Liv.
Liv, who was there, watching, but who did nothing. She just looked away. Back then, he'd told himself it was better that way, that she wouldn't get hurt. But now, seeing Aina's cold disdain, he knew that was utter bullshit. Bullshit on his part for being weak. He had been tossed around by an unfair world, died because that world was so unfair, and then met the bastard deity of a biased reality who affirmed just how unfair existence was.
But now?
Now he had Flow.
Now he could actually do something about it.
He had power.
He could learn.
Why not get stronger? If he succeeded in killing himself, Deus would just toy with him again, reincarnate him into another awful scenario for his amusement. But if he got stronger, if he became truly powerful, he could at the very least dislocate that smug god's jaw before he was reincarnated again.
Or erased.
The thought fueled a cold, determined rage.
"Oi," Elias said, interrupting Aina's tirade. A single, multi-colored spark of Flow popped in front of him. His eyes, now a swirling vortex of amber and emerald, fixed on her.
"Who do you think you are, looking down on me?" He demanded .A flurry of multi-colored sparks erupted around him, crackling like tiny, angry stars.
‡
Meanwhile, in the grand dining hall, Lady Elara joined Ortis for a late breakfast.
"Are you really not going to teach my son, Ortis?" she asked, a hint of exasperation in her voice.
Ortis chewed slowly on a piece of toast.
"I only said that to charge the little brat. He's old enough to be offended at least. That way he'll try his best when we start training with Aina later today. But remember, only if he demonstrates true potential. Not just a lucky burst."
Just then, a blinding flash of light and an explosion erupted from the fields behind the manor shaking the building. Both Ortis and Elara whirled around and looked out the window. A vibrant, multi-colored rainbow cloud, pulsating with immense energy, rose majestically into the sky from the very spot where Elias and Aina stood.
Ortis's eyes widened, a rare look of genuine astonishment on his face. He senses both Aina and Elias but instantly locked in on Elias. He felt an immense amount of Flow, raw and unrestrained, unlike anything he'd ever sensed from a mere child.
Lady Elara gasped, quickly moving out of the hall towards the commotion. Ortis snapped his fingers. With a soft pop, they both vanished, instantly appearing at the location of the power surge. He grinned, a wide, almost manic smile spreading across his face as he surveyed the incredible display before him.
"Well, I'll be…" he said in astonishment.