Rise of Legends - DISCONTINUED

Assimilation II

Alistair POV:

"Mmmm... what's going on? Why am I sleeping on the ground?"

My ears perked up immediately at the sound of Tess's feeble voice.

"G-Grandpa? Where am... AL!!!!"

"ALISTAIR!!!!" Tessia almost knocked me back down onto the ground from how fast she flew into my arms.

Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Grandpa's arms stretched wide open, expecting a hug from his granddaughter that he never got. 

I didn't have the luxury to laugh as I could feel her naked body flushed against my body. I tried to speak but words refused to form in my throat and my mind was filled with the disturbing information father had told me before.

"Ahhem, Tess," Grandpa coughed into his hand before continuing, "You should get... dressed first."

She looked down before slowly coming to the realisation that her body was just barely covered. Tess let out a horrified scream that shook the room and Grandpa Virion was knocked back without the time to react. I cancelled out the mana as I was able to react in time.

Tess was at the epicentre of a storm of translucent emerald green vines, dozens of meters in length, all snapping and whipping around chaotically. What was even more strange was that it looked more like an extension of the bright green aura surrounding Tess, who was now curled up in the fetal position.

"Th-This... mana formation of this magnitude... shouldn't be possible for her!" Grandpa Virion's stood there, gaping.

"You have got to be kidding me," I mumbled to myself.

Cupping my hands, I yelled out, "Tess! You need to calm down!"

"Shut up, shut up, shut up! Go away! I can't believe you didn't tell me I was n-naked!" she screamed, her eyes still shut tightly in embarrassment. Something told me that those semi-transparent tendrils responded to her emotions because they were swaying even more fiercely right now.

"Didn't you learn that telling a screaming girl to calm down never actually calms her down?" Grandpa Virion said, shaking his head in mock disappointment.

"Tess! It's your grandfather! Open your eyes!" Virion shouted this time.

"Huh?"

As Tess peeked out from one eye, she finally realized what was happening.

"What's going on? What is all of this?" The flustered Tess looked to us for help.

"Try controlling your emotions, it's making your mana flow go out of control," I tried to explain in a more reasonable tone.

Tess looked to Virion, who was nodding in agreement with me.

As realisation dawned on her, Tess closed her eyes and began meditating, and the translucent emerald vines slowly dissipated, fading out of sight.

The two of us rushed to where Tess was curled up as soon as the vines, that seemed to be made up of pure mana, disappeared.

"Quick, Gramps, check her mana core."

I was going off a hunch, kind of scared to hear the truth.

"That's just what I was about to do, brat." Virion rolled up his sleeves and imbued some mana into his palms.

"Wait! Al, turn around!" Tess was obviously out of breath but she was also aware that something was different with her body.

"I-It can't be... Ha ha ha... W-What in the world?" I heard Virion's trembling voice.

"What? What is it? What stage is her core at, Gramps? Dark yellow? Don't tell me... she's at solid yellow like Arthur? Or light yellow life me?" I was itching to turn around.

"Half a step away from Initial Silver. She almost broke through into the initial silver stage."

"What?" I whipped my head back, causing Tess to wrap the robe covering her even more tightly.

Ignoring Tess' glare and protests, and my own embarrassment, I put my hand on her abdomen over the robe.

He was right... Even when sensing directly, I couldn't recognise the extent of her mana core, which meant she was at a higher level than I was.

Both Gramps and I fell straight to our bums in utter disbelief.

She reached Dark Yellow stage not too long ago. That meant she skipped through all of Yellow and straight into Initial Silver?

This gravity-defying news was hard for me to swallow. Of course, there was Gary who broke through to Initial Silver quite some time ago, and now Lancelot whose also half a step away from that, but those two are literally legendary geniuses never seen before.

"What the hell did you give her, brat?" Virion asked. "I've never heard of a beast will tempering a mana core. Or did it perhaps have anything to do with that orb you threw at her?"

"Grandpa, what did you mean by 'half a step away'? What orb?" Tess echoed, puzzled by our conversation.

"I-I thought it was just some kind of elixir..." I was at a loss for words.

'I knew that elixir was something good, but to think it had that kind of effect!' I yelled internally while also trying to calm down.

"Alistair, if there ever was such an elixir that could do what that orb did just now, wars would break loose in hopes to win it," Grandpa Virion shook his head, still in shock as he imagined everything he'd just told me. "How did you get your hands on whatever orb that was anyway?"

"Ha ha ha haha... I got it for a silver coin, Gramps."

Virion gawked at me incredulously. 

"I don't exactly know myself. I kinda got that orb from a peddler but that's as much as I know..." I let out another small laugh in helplessness.

"Can you tell me what's going on? You guys weren't actually being serious right?" Tess immediately began focusing on her mana core. "No way... m-my mana core is light yellow now... and it already has so many cracks on it," she said as her voice trembled.

"H-Honey... you're actually a peak light yellow core mage now," Grandpa Virion mumbled, almost whispering.

Tess' eyes rolled back as she fainted, her body slumped against my wind magic I just cast in time. I positioned her more comfortably on the grass floor.

"She's sure to be exhausted after having gone through all of this; her body was under constant stress, and breaking through more than two stages at once took a toll on her mind as well. I guess the realisation was the tipping point." Virion let out a chuckle as he picked her up.

"I'm going to take her back to Elenoir through the gate. She needs some rest, and I'm sure my son and daughter-in-law are still worried. Kukuku, I'm kind of looking forward to how they'll react to this. Sigh~ Imagine... Princess Tessia, a silver core mage at the age of 13," he boasted with a wide grin on his face. "Do you want to come with me?"

"I'll pass on that. I know Tess is safe, and she knows I'm safe as well; that'll have to do for now. We'll catch up when she returns to school," I replied.

"Mm. I have a meeting with The Council that I've been avoiding 'til now, so I won't get to see you for a while. Get some rest, boy." Grandpa Virion threw me wink and walked out of the training room with Tess in tow.

(A/N: I decided to upload this chapter much earlier because I wanted to now change some of the story going forward. The day of upload is now Thursday instead of Wednesday.)