Duchess Victoria watched as Duchess Everhart began assessing her beloved son, gauging the depths of his untapped potential for magic.
Initially, Victoria had been uncertain about trusting Freya, but her fears seemed unfounded.
And, even if Freya attempted anything Victoria disapproved of, she knew she had the means to dispose of her.
Duchess Everhart took her nephew's hand in her own, a blue magic circle appearing above her fingers as she closed her eyes and concentrated.
The magic circle glowed dimly as Freya guided her mana into her nephew's spiritual body, seeking his mana core to gauge its size—an essential step in understanding his potential.
The mana core, contrary to popular belief, is not a physical organ but a spiritual one, invisible and intangible.
It resides within the spiritual body, one of the three essential components required for a being's evolution, collectively known as the Triad of Evolution.
The Triad consists of the physical body, the spiritual body, and the soul.
The spiritual body houses not only the mana core but also all supernatural constitutions, such as special physiques, elemental affinities, abilities, and martial skills.
The stronger the spiritual body, the more constitutions it can contain.
Growth of the spiritual body can only be achieved by strengthening either the physical body or the soul.
These three components are deeply interconnected, each influencing the growth of the others.
At that moment, Freya was attempting to access Damian's spiritual body through a spell, relying on her extraordinary mana control.
As her mana entered his physical body, she could feel his blood flow, hear his heartbeat.
She concentrated further, guiding her mana deeper until, finally, she reached his spiritual body.
"Is this… normal?" Freya thought, stunned, as she found herself in a vast, dark expanse stretching endlessly in every direction. "How can his spiritual body be so colossal?"
She focused even harder, searching for the mana core.
What felt like hours passed, though her consciousness traveled with lightning speed.
As she explored, she sensed hundreds of presences—similar to mana cores, yet vastly different, scattered throughout his spiritual body.
They were incomprehensible, and her attempts to understand them left her dizzy.
Reluctantly, she ignored these unknown presences, focusing solely on the familiar: the mana core.
At last, she reached it.
But just as she approached, a piercing, disorienting ring echoed in her mind.
She pressed on, steeling herself, and looked upon her nephew's mana core.
The sight was staggering.
A massive core, easily ten feet in diameter, pulsed with multicolored energy, vibrating so intensely it seemed ready to burst.
It emitted a cacophony of sounds—booming, rumbling, exploding from every direction.
"Is this really the spiritual body of a seven-year-old?" she thought, swallowing nervously.
"Could my nephew be… a god in human form?"
But just then, she felt something else—a presence within Damian's spiritual body.
It was massive, and exuded a dark, hostile energy.
The very ground around her seemed to tremble, the storm of sounds intensifying and pounding against her consciousness.
A menacing force was approaching, growing more massive and more threatening with every second.
She couldn't see it; she didn't even want to.
It felt as though the air itself was closing in around her.
"Not good," she thought, dread gripping her heart.
Desperately, she began to retract her consciousness, pulling herself back toward the waking world.
But the presence wasn't about to let her escape; it chased her like a predator after prey, lurking in the shadows, drawing closer.
Just as she felt the sharp fangs of this presence closing in, she broke free, her consciousness returning to the real world by the narrowest of margins.
As soon as Freya emerged from the trance, she began coughing violently, blood seeping from her mouth and nose as she collapsed to the ground.
"Mother!"
"Aunt Freya!"
Fiona rushed to her mother's side, while Damian held his aunt's hand tightly, trying to support her as she struggled to stay upright.
"I'm fine… I'm fine," Freya managed, taking a deep breath. She slowly stood up, wiping away the blood with a quick spell, then looked at her nephew and placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
"Are you okay? What happened? Did you get hurt trying to assess my potential?" Damian asked, worry clear in his eyes.
"Yes, what happened? I've never seen you bleed like that," Fiona added, her face full of concern.
"This is nothing… I must be a little tired from all the traveling. I seem to have lost control of my mana for a moment. A few hours of sleep should fix it," Duchess Everhart replied, waving her hand with a reassuring smile, as though she was telling the truth.
Duchess Victoria, Elizabeth, and the twins exchanged glances, clearly unconvinced, but they held back from pressing her further.
Damian looked up at his aunt with hopeful eyes. "Tell me, Aunt Freya… do I have any potential for magic?"
Freya smiled warmly and patted his head. "You are the most gifted person for magic I have ever encountered in my life."
She then turned to Damian's mother and sisters. "We can begin his pre-awakening training for magic right away."
...
"Now that we're alone, mind telling us exactly what happened back there?" Duchess Victoria crossed her arms and fixed Duchess Everhart with a piercing gaze.
They weren't exactly alone; Elizabeth and the twins were also present, though Damian and Fiona were absent.
"Well…" Duchess Freya Everhart hesitated, glancing at them for a few moments before recounting everything she encountered when her consciousness entered Damian's spiritual body.
She grew especially serious when describing the beast-like presence that had hunted her down.
"What is that thing? Is it a threat to my son?" Victoria asked, her expression tense.
"To be honest, I don't know," Freya replied. "It behaved almost like an immune system, chasing down the foreign presence—me—that had entered its domain. If you want my opinion, I don't think it's something harmful. I believe it may be one of his innate abilities. The reason I say this is because it felt strangely similar to his mana core and…"
"And what?" Elizabeth prompted, noticing Freya's hesitation.
"Just before my consciousness returned to the real world, I felt it… take a small piece of me," Freya admitted, rubbing her neck uncomfortably.
"I don't know what to make of this," she sighed, and the others exchanged uneasy glances.
...
"Isn't he interesting?" The Heavenly Father, the single god of the Christian pantheon, looked at his seven archangels.
"Well, Father, you just heard that woman's reasoning. It must be one of his abilities. What's so interesting about him?" Ariel, the Angel of Charity, replied, rubbing her cheek.
The Heavenly Father shook his head. "You don't understand. You see, I don't think he's so simple. Don't you all remember that he was blessed by all the gods and goddesses?"
"I understand what you're saying now, Father," Haniel, the Angel of Temperance, said, raising his hand as if he had grasped something. "He was blessed by all the gods, both from positive divinities and negative divinities, which shouldn't be possible because it goes against the Laws."
"But how is that possible? His soul should have exploded from the opposing divinities inside him," Gabriel, the Angel of Chastity, asked with a confused expression.
"You see, this is what makes him extremely interesting—the size of his soul, apart from that, it's fascinating how much his soul is enduring..." the Heavenly Father stated, before glancing at the boy with crimson hair, talking to a girl with dark brown hair.
"But, Father, isn't it dangerous to let a being like him live? Shouldn't we kill him before he causes some kind of disturbance to the balance?" Michael, the Angel of Patience, asked with a serious expression.
"No... not if the ancient world tree, Yggdrasil, herself has blessed a being like him," the Heavenly Father continued. "If she doesn't see a problem with a being of such a strange constitution, and even supports him with her blessing, I don't see why we should interfere in his life.".
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{Author's Note: If you enjoyed this chapter, don't forget to vote with some POWER STONES. It would also really help me if you could rate this book. Thank you for reading!}