Back when Noel first turned four, he was introduced to something called a ‘punishment time’.

At first, it was nothing. Nothing special whatsoever. It only represented how long he needed to go over his mistakes from a lesson in his homeschooling sessions.

‘Homework’ so to speak.

This was changed the moment he grew to reach age 5.

Well, rather than ‘change’, it’s better to call it an addition.

Punishment time lets a child gain extra attention to ‘correct’ their mistakes.

But repetitive mistakes after the reeducation warrant the child’s need for a slightly more...strict approach.

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A special room for children who behaved naughty. They would be alone in an all gray room for 20 minutes to an hour. Sometimes longer if they were worse...but considering they were 5 year olds, even as geniuses they weren’t treated too harshly. Anything under 20 is practically still an infant to the Malieranos, so the children were merely ‘educated’ and little more.

Once he turned six...Noel took his first life, thinking that ‘killing people’ was a type of game. With this, he also learned of the dungeons.

very minor beatings from the family occurred on a constant basis. It could be anyone nearby, anyone at all from the inner family, or even the core family if they’re fine with wasting their free time hanging around. The usual culprits were people like Alianne pretending to be harsh, so anybody with a more violent, sadistic tendency doesn’t come through…

…

…

…

...And Aeron.

There were others, but Noel didn’t bother remembering them all. Only the important ones he vowed to get revenge on when he got older.

At this age, if he did anything wrong – anything whatsoever - he was exposed to a dungeon, where he would be tortured in chains from anywhere between half a day to many days.

Once, he was even tortured by Aeron for a span of one month, before Alianne snuck him out and received punishment from father in his stead.

Turning 7 was the major turning point for Noel. He learned of solo missions and earned the right to participate in them. He would still be taken to dungeons for torture…

...but this time it was ‘real’ Malierano style torture. Both Aeron and Alianne were made to participate as well, much to both of their dismay.

Having his body flayed, damaged, crushed, broken, chopped up or skinned while he was alive…

Only to be near-instantly healed when at the brink of death. And thanks to a pair of odd vials he knew far too little about; death took very long to visit.

Such things soon became common occurrences. They would come immediately following a failed evaluation, whenever he messed up during a mission his ‘father’ had selected him for. It was one of the biggest reasons Noel was so easily ‘lured astray’ by his sister, Alianne.

At this age, through age 8 and finally all the way up until 9 years old: Noel would learn to fear one single man. He was a man that worked as his father’s very own personal, hand picked Doctor. Nothing like Dr. Armsman the greedy backstabber who wanted to mind control him...this man was both the family’s greatest healer…

...and their most sadistic torture expert.

…

{...I’m thinking about stupid things again. Forget him. Forget needlessly reminding myself about ‘those times’ and kill this man! My blood loss is quite extensive, but I regained some control.

Furthermore, it seems like he’s not in the least bit aware that my hands can move again!

He probably thinks I’m dying right now, unable to move an inch…

Well I’ve got a wonderful surprise in store for him..!}

1: “4 is done. He needs to be recovered at all cost. The same treatment applies to 6. I can’t have her die here….Never again will I lose somebody I care for. But, where is she? I can’t for the life of me fi-”

The instance 1 took his sight off the battle field in order to seek out his allies’ positions, Noel found his opportunity to strike. All it took was inserting a little bit of destruction energy into his open wounds to systematically target anything that’s NOT him: what this means is any invasive or foreign substance will disappear right now.

At first, after 1 initially scattered the remaining two gas monsters throughout the air, he considered a few options.

If he swipes ‘destructive touch’ everywhere by moving his hands all around his body , unlike what his opponent believes, will he ACTUALLY disintegrate them all? The invading micro-sized metal? Does that count as ‘touching’ even though those metals are too small for him to genuinely ‘touch’ right after making contact?

And…

If he ‘touches’ the blood inside his own body, would that count as committing suicide?

Or would he be able to systematically eliminate whatever he touches that ISN’T considered a part of his body?

*Boom!*

The result is a resounding success. 1 hears the loud noise and turns, only to bear witness to a free Malierano charging straight at him!

But how??

He should’ve been restricted by the magnetic beasts within! Those creatures, even in a scattered form, can still be counted as being ‘alive’ and under his control. How could this kid…?

One single, failed observation on his part allowed Noel the opportunity to push his experiments into action. Knowing he was safe from being monitored for the time being, he took his left hand, activated ‘destructive touch’ around his soft fingertips – then shoved them directly into his right arm’s open wound!

And it hurt! Alot!

Fear of the possibility that he was destroying his own body overcame his mind and for a split second, his fingers tensed up - Noel wanted to stop.

Yet, After one second passed...he opted to brood over it first.

He carefully considered it, thoroughly pondered over it. Then, 5 seconds following, calmed down. Educational words from his quintuplet brother Seiran, regarding the workings of his destructive origin energy, echoed softly in his mind like the comforting words of a mother, offering praise to her adolescent:

“Listen, stupid. Your power is strong but not perfect. There are FAR too many limitations on it’s uses, such as having to actually TOUCH somebody for it to work. If you so much as get caught by an opponent more experienced than you are in combat, and with reasonable levels of talent, then you’re screwed. You’ll need to adapt your power differently. That...fragment, told you it was called ‘destructive touch’ correct? The ENERGY needs to touch somebody – you don’t.

This means the energy itself isn’t actually stationary. It doesn’t appear to be limited to your fingertips only – so play with it and try to move it throughout your body. Hmph, giving a dumb fool such a power – what was that thing thinking?! Maybe it resonates to some extent with your stupidity.

...Oh, right. before I forget. Seigan wanted me to remind you in case you weren’t aware, that the energy you use doesn’t ONLY destroy the first thing you touch! ‘’It’s all about your intent’ he says. If you will it, and feed it enough energy, then it will probably continue eliminating stuff in a volatile chain reaction. I say ‘volatile’ because we still need to run some tests on how much ‘willpower’ is needed to control it, and if anything will trigger it to get out of hand...”

…

A chain reaction it was.

*Tssssss!*

The moment Noel’s fingers entered his shoulder wound, violent black and purple energy poured out. It only reached two inches in or so, but such depth solidified the energy’s contact with the invasive micro metals. The surrounding metals were destroyed – then, as brother Seiran suggested a year and a half ago, Noel ‘willed’ the energy to keep destroying anything similar to those tiny metallic substances.

The force of energy wreaked havoc in his body, but the pain never came from the energy itself harming him. No, it instead came from a fierce clash between his father’s ‘curse’ on the blood, and the destructive energy!

The curse somehow detected movement within the blood, alerting itself to follow orders. Likewise, the energy Noel released came into contact with something it wasn’t ordered to destroy, but instead, sought to harm it! As if two misunderstood adversaries were engaged in a deadly showdown, the two forces began actively sizing the other up. Eventually, the curse caved however. That was obviously because there was no intent by the energy to harm the blood, only taking out the substance invading it. The curse also had begun progressively acting to remove the metal invading it, but it didn’t act on the fragments within other parts of Noel’s body – just the blood alone. This meant the two forces had nothing to do with each other, save for the tiny fact that they shared a common enemy.

The energy moved thanks to the ‘intent’ imbued into it, and Noel’s willpower to have his specs of energy ‘seek and destroy’ the invasive metal.

The curse...Noel only heard about it when he learned his Father sealed his growth by taking advantage of their family’s generational curse. The ‘tweak’ his father added strengthens Noel’s true power over time, allowing it to grow continuously so long as he is still fully alive. Thus, the curse will actually ‘help‘ Noel’s stolen strength do something productive, rather than remain indefinitely sealed where it’s destined to deteriorate.

Many people would love to get their hands on his family’s blood. It harbors countless secrets after all. Because of that – their family set up countless levels of protection as well – protection against mortals, celestials and even the Gods themselves.

One such protection was the curse activating Right now. Thanks to it, when a non - Malierano tampers with the blood.… without causing harm to the body itself, they’ll find the curse eating away at them without concern or remorse. The curse itself, also known by enemies of the family as the ‘Vengeful Blood’ curse, is only one of many protective layers protecting the family.

Another is the explosive enchant cast by the family’s sorcerers in order to obliterate any non - Malierano or other physical substance close to the family blood. When the material leaves a family member’s vicinity, They’ll immediately find themselves spontaneously combusting, right before a gorgeous explosion in the shape of an ‘M’.

Both of these curses caused the scattered gas beasts to disappear from his body, as well as the metal and soil stained with blood to sizzle.

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