At that moment, I remember I kept my calm and continued watching. If only I knew that things were about to go haywire, I would've liked to be notified beforehand…but would your killer send you a warm invitation to the venue of your death?

This Alucard Firestorm was more than he let on.

Because the only one I was guarding against was him.

When he saw Jake's flame he appeared elated for a second but hid it immediately to show the same surprised look as the parents.

"It's okay Jake. You can stop now." John Kuzah said as he turned to Alucard Firestorm.

"A variant fire. And it's of a higher grade than even my own. Several grades higher, I think. This is so bizarre. I've never heard of purple fire in the records of the entire Colossal Continent or even Danan planet." Alucard Firestorm said, he then deeply looked into the eyes of John Kuzah and asked, "Anything you're hiding from me, old friend?"

John just shook his head, "I wish. I'm just as shocked as everyone else."

"What about the firstborn? Anything?" Alucard's greedy face appeared for the first second he laid eyes on the frowning Jack again.

"Anything, you want to tell us 'little man'?" That was the nickname John Kuzah used when he was talking to me now as it was obvious that I acted like a grown-up despite trying to hide it.

He had huge expectations for me, this 'smart' crown prince. The was no way the stupider one would awaken a mana sea coupled with a never before seen variant fire, while the smartest remained a normal human.

Was life about to deal unfavorable cards to his heir?

I was sure he wouldn't have it. A succession war was the last thing he wanted to see in his life.

Of course, even if I turned out to have no magic, he'd still help me become a paladin of the space element through the inheritance ritual. It would be the last gift he would leave me.

…But I wanted him to live a long life…see his grandchildren.

"No. I have no magic. Sorry." I answered.

Alucard nodded. He probably didn't mind another shock, but one was enough for that day.

Alucard then said, "I will be taking him to Solusluna Academy now. The sooner he is taught how to control this power, the better he will be able to protect himself when spellcasting."

What a lousy excuse. I'm sure he can't wait to dissect my brother to learn his secrets.

What could it be if there were no secrets hidden when a four-year-old awakened a never before seen element when the average age for awakening was around the age of twelve.

At the time my parents believed in the good intentions of their friend, the Vice Dean of Solusluna Academy, and probably thought that’d have the answers that surpassed their humble minds.

“Okay then,” Alucard suddenly said, he then closed his eyes and started mumbling to himself while shaking his head.

“Sorry, John…” before his words finished, an explosion was heard as a fireball had been sent onto my defenseless mother.

With such close proximity, I could already see her death. By the time my skin registered the suffocating heat, everything had been over… more or less.

It seemed that Alucard Firestorm counted on my father teleporting in front of my mother to block the fireball. It all happened like so.

My father lay there, it was unknown if he was alive or not.

My mother just stood there trembling from head to toe, not knowing what to do in this situation.

I knew from her facial expression that she saw no way out for us.

Jake was the more agitated and soon fainted.

…only I was left there, sitting calmly looking as if all of that had nothing to do with me.

In my head, I was calculating how to better use my powers to eliminate this traitor…and If I was able to. This Alucard had dispatched the strongest man I knew in my entire life with a simple fireball.

…Had my father always been so weak? Or was this Rank B fire mage too strong?

The aftermath of the short altercation had blown the ceiling to smithereens. I could hear clanging sounds of armor hitting each other coming closer…surely the knights of the palace had heard the commotion.

But deep down, inside of me, something was boiling.

That f*cker had the gal to even touch my reverse scale. My poor little brother had to suffer such trauma so early in his life.

I stood up under the manic gaze of the fire mage, seeing that I was more or less calm, he said, “Sorry, kid. But I cannot let such a small kingdom have such a precious fire. It must belong to our academy who can better protect it against covetous eyes.”

I ignored him and heard him swallow his next words abruptly as I turned to touch my mother’s hand.

[Dark Healing] was activated and visible hair-like tendrils of a dark element escaped my hand and then touched my mother.

Her eyes drooped and then she fell asleep. I only hoped that she had seen nothing else. I made her faint to avoid my powers from being discovered.

Then my father was next.

I heaved a sigh of relief as I finally knew that he was alive.

The [Dark Healing] primal function was to heal but in order to achieve that it had to eat from your vitality…your soul energy. The patient would just sleep it off to recover the soul energy and the sleeping time depends on the quantity of vitality eaten.

After I was done, I could hear an uproarious roar of laughter behind me.

As I looked at the crazed tears of joy coming out of Alucard’s eyes, I almost had the urge to vomit…he had also set his sights on me.

Well, I had already activated [Dark Empowerment] but all I could feel and hear were some crazed murmurs in my head. I could feel like things were going off script somehow.

Then I blacked out.

I once again found myself before the gorgeous purple-dressed woman.

“What’s happening? I shouldn’t be here.” I said to the bird.

“At least now you’ll come to understand why I forbid you to awaken with my bloodline and power so early. With such an unstable mind, you’ll be the death of this world.” She said as she kept her eyes closed while lying on the chaise longue.

“What do you mean? Goddamnit, explain!” I angrily said as time was of the essence.

“Look for yourself.” She waved her hand and a screen appeared before me.

On it, I saw the battered state of Alucard Firestorm with flaming wings. He was bleeding and covered with wounds all over his body.

His armor was dented everywhere and almost unrepairable.

His surroundings were a heavy black fog, but I could tell that he was in the sky somewhere.

“What is this? Who is doing this to him?” I asked…before I thought of something, it seemed the image represented what someone was seeing at the moment. “It can’t be me. I am here…”

“You were unstable mentally, with such a perturbation when using a rune, it won’t go as you expect. The [Dark empowerment] and [Dark corrosion] runes fused temporarily and it may become permanent if you do not go back soon.” She said nonchalantly.

“Goddamnit, what now? What is a [dark minion] doing in this equation? I didn’t call for it.” I said. I knew that [dark corrosion] was the fusion of the [darkness] rune and the [soul parasite] rune and can create [dark minions]…so how could I parasitize myself. Is it possible? If yes, Am I somehow stupid and did it unknowingly?

She then finally opened her eyes and looked at me, “Any thought of yours can activate a rune without you knowing it. Any feeling of powerlessness could have activated the [dark corrosion] rune because you were unsure your strength was insufficient and needed someone or something stronger to do the job….that’s what I can guess happened…now go back and take control of your body…somehow…hehehe.”

With that, she flicked her finger at me and then…

I opened my eyes to a pitch-black place.

While it was pitch black, I could still discern one new rune of the darkness element.

I beckoned at it and then the rune entered me.

I was remembering that every dark minion would get to awaken one darkness-related rune.

…and this particular rune, I called it [weaving Darkness]...the ability to transform darkness into anything, solid, liquid, or gaseous.

I could already see myself sending hundreds of solid swords made of the darkness element into the bodies of my enemies or I, myself, could transform into various things and not be limited to the gaseous form the [shadow manipulation ] already gave me.

I felt that I had regained a body…a body several times what I was used to.

I opened my eyes to see my gigantic body floating in the sky above a mountain that had been cut in half.

Alucard Firestorm laid in the crater in the middle of the mountain, his condition unknown.

“ ‘Took your sweet time coming back huh! I finished the job.” I heard a voice inside of me.

‘Am I going to have another tenant in my body, now?’ I immediately knew it was the Dark Minion that was born out of my accidental monumental unwanted mistake.

I saw a bundle of dark elements leave my three-meter bodybuilder giant style body only for another three-meter tall giant to materialize out of it. The giant seemed to be made of black obsidian

I found it amusing that I had managed to copy myself while also enslaving myself at the same time.

I could feel that this dark minion would never betray me as our souls were interlinked.

As I felt its soul it was like looking into a mirror.

“Quite lucky that I awakened the [Darkness transmutation] rune. Or else I wouldn’t be able to take form outside of our body.” Jake 2 said with a grin.

“Oh? I call it [Weaving Darkness]. We’re the same person yet we had a different naming sense. Yours sounds much better though. Let’s keep it.” I said

Hence [weaving darkness] turned into [darkness transmutation].

I looked at my now giant hand and made a fist, feeling the power coursing through the veins of my new body. I could feel my liquid mana being slowly consumed.

“So, this what [Dark Empowerment] does, huh!”