Chereads / Heir of Chaos: Mythic Magic / Chapter 26 - Explaining the Element

Chapter 26 - Explaining the Element

Ojero, noticing the attention being centered on him, had hide a grin.

'I wonder how much fun I can have with this.'

He flashed an innocent smile as he took a step towards his brother, slowly and carefully raising his hand while doing so.

Orpham lifted his own arm and leaned towards him, clearly assuming he planned to share his status with him.

Ojero had other, far more devious, plans.

Finally, when he made contact with his twin, he mentally activated the mana in his body. He noticed it was flowing a lot more smoothly now that he wielded an element, but that was for him to explore more later.

With a jolt of energy, he felt a burning sensation behind his eyes that vanished quickly.

Orpham, who had been looking at his hand expectantly, seemed confused. He looked up, and once he locked eyes with Ojero, his gaze turned hard.

Before he could react, Ojero felt a strong force grab his arm, and then began to move through the air.

His back hit the stone ground with a worrying crack, and his head snapped down right after, causing his vision to turn blurry. A staggering blow connected with his ribs.

Ojero tried to yell out in surprise, but he had no air left in his lungs to do so. 

His was roughly jerked to his feet by thick arms. Despite his height, he felt his feet leave the ground. 

As he looked around, he felt a strange compulsion to slam his head back. Trusting it, he felt his skull connect with Jason's jaw, causing the giant to drop him and stumble back.

Landing on his feet, the feeling came again, and this time it was to scream as loud as he could.

Once again he followed the instinct and unleashed a high-pitched scream. To Ojero's embarrassment, it sounded feminine and terrified. It had no discernible impact except to distract Orpham who had been running towards him.

The moment of confusion caused the muscular boy to trip on a stone protrusion, sending him crashing face-first into the ground.

'What the hell is going on!'

Despite his question, he already had an idea of what the voice was.

Orpham's ability allowed him to see into the future to protect himself and his allies, whereas Ojero seemed to be able to see how to hurt his enemies instead.

As the ability [Echoes of Chaos] had promised, Orpham's ability had been twisted to be similar, but fundamentally different.

Ojero didn't know how he felt about the evil insinuations the ability had about him.

It also seemed to not be perfect, as was proven when a lithe leg connected with the side of his head, sending him stumbling to the side, his hand raising to cover his ear.

Turning to face the attacker, he saw Anastasia bouncing to her other foot before sending another high kick towards his face.

Disorientated, he didn't manage to dodge, and the second blow sent him sprawling.

Coughing up some blood, he feebly crawled away before feeling the back of his head get yanked up.

"Stop!"

He croaked out.

"It's me! It's my new ability!"

A gust of wind hit his back, and he vaguely sensed Anastasia's hand stop just before striking his spine.

He twisted around and looked her in the eye, seeing nothing but cool calculation in her eyes. Her body was wound like a spring, ready to explode into motion at any opportunity. 

He weakly raised his hands in the air as Orpham and Jason approached from either side, both of them having blood on their faces.

Wanting to prove his point, Ojero dismissed his ability, and he could feel the mana leave his eyes. 

The other three seemed to react to this and released sighs of relief.

"What the hell were you thinking?"

Orpham shouted.

"We find you in a creepy cave and you think that's the time to showcase a new ability that turns your eyes black? I thought you were possessed!"

Jason joined in.

"Yeah! Your body could've been used by some kind of Beast as a puppet!"

Anastasia didn't comment but did release Ojero, her stance barely changing as he slowly backed away.

Ojero took a moment to catch his breath and, reluctantly, did understand why they had attacked him. He didn't know his ability would change his eyes, but he should have assumed something like that would have happened.

Although his aspects did mention changing and corrupting abilities, they were all based on a foundation that was already there. 

Since Orpham's ability changed the appearance of his eyes, Ojero's did the same, just with different effects.

Evidently, it turned his black.

If his body didn't hurt so much, he would have found the whole situation funny.

Orpham, however, couldn't stop himself from chuckling a little 

"And where did you learn to fight like that? Sure, you might've gotten lucky with me tripping, but that scream came out of nowhere! And you have never headbutted me before! Why did you do it to Jason?"

Wiping some blood from his nose, Ojero responded.

"It's my new ability, it lets me copy other abilities but a little twisted."

He pointed at Orpham's eyes.

"When you touched me, I was able to copy yours. It gave me… ideas on how to hurt my opponents. It's why I knew to hit Jason's jaw and to break your focus. It tried to warn me against Anastasia, but she was too fast."

The pretty teen was losing her guard with time and even seemed proud of the compliment, her eyes twinkling a little.

"Damn, that's one hell of an ability! You can copy others? I haven't heard of something like before! What rarity is it!"

Orpham extended his hand again, obviously expecting Ojero to take it and share his status.

Ojero, however, just smiled awkwardly and stepped to avoid the hand.

"It's a legendary gem, trust me! Even I'm surprised to find one down here!"

Orpham's smile broke a little as his brother dodged his touch, but seemed to take the hint and not push the issue.

"Legendary you say? That's amazing Ojero! Those are super rare! You think it's one of the ethereal gems you've been after?"

Ojero actually wasn't sure if it qualified. Copying abilities meant that it theoretically could be, but for now, it wasn't a permanent one. 

It was a little uncomfortable for him to be lying like this to his twin, though. They had always trusted each other with the truth, no matter the situation. It felt unnatural. If not for the warning Asmodeus the Diviner had given him, he would've confessed on the spot.

"I'm unsure. I think it might be, but I won't know until I rank up a few times. It definitely seems to be a unique one, but that's legendary gems for you!"

Anastasia finally spoke up then.

"Gems that have unusual qualities often turn out to be part of one niche group or another. I would check with the Librarians Guild if I were you."

All three boys gave her a questioning look at that, Jason's more than a little pained as he rubbed his jaw.

The noble lady sighed.

"Of course you false nobles don't know about it. You Guestinos never did amount to very good scholars."

She rolled her eyes.

"As no one else is around to explain this, I shall do it. Listen closely now. The Librarians Guild is a select group of mages that work to collect and share information regarding magic in all its forms. They have the most conclusive records of gems, abilities, and artifacts in the world. They operate out of the individual academies and share their information across them at the expense of the kings."

Ojero had never heard of this group before! He would've wondered why his dad didn't mention them, but it wasn't very surprising. 

Their dad was a great warrior but did not value knowledge very much.

Regardless, this Librarians Guild seemed to be the best opportunity he had for information on abilities that focus on copying and to learn more about the [Chaos] aspect he had.

As far as he was currently concerned, learning about those two was a top priority.

Anastasia grew a little smug.

"My family has supplied many great mages to the Librarians Guild. If you really need information, I suppose I would be able to help gain you a free audience with one of their High Learners. They will assuredly know what you seek."

Her words seemed nice, but her words were nothing short of insulting.

Ojero had to restrain himself from denying her right there, knowing that the offer was too good to pass up.

Even if he had no idea how much an audience with a High Learner would usually cost.

His eyes widened.

There was also the fact neither he, nor Orpham, had used the tablets their father had given them yet.

The sound of Jason rubbing his jaw caused Ojero to wince. It seemed like he had done some damage to the giant teenager.

'Maybe we should wait till Jason can get some medical attention…'