Michael scowled while staring at the back of his hand. His War Rune didn't look the same as before. It looked like it expanded to his fingers where it morphed into an Angel with wide-spread wings.
Only a small portion of the War Rune's upper area had changed, but the changes were quite obvious. It was enough to attract everyone's attention…and for everyone to say that 'it' was troublesome.
"What is that? Why did my War Rune transform?" Michael asked his friends.
Lincoln, Zeke, and Kaleb looked at each other but didn't answer immediately.
"Basically, you were marked," Lincoln responded at last.
"Marked?"
"You really know nothing about the Seraph family, do you?" Zeke responded with a deep frown on his face. He was visibly annoyed.
Lincoln tapped Zeke's shoulder and responded in Michael's stead, "Calm down, Zeke. It's only obvious that Michael knows nothing about the secrets of the Supreme Families. You tend to forget that he is not yet a member of High Society. Who would have told him about our secrets?"
Zeke stared at Lincoln and clicked his tongue, "Right."
His head flicked to Michael before he uttered a silent apology. "Sorry about that."
The next moment Zeke sighed deeply and began to explain Michael a few things.
"The Mark on the back of your hand means that your Soul Power is highly compatible with Maria's Soultrait. It was very easy for her to use Heaven's Descent, the Seraph family's Inheritance technique, while tapping into your Soul Power. The Inheritance technique allows her to temporarily use the Soul Power of the allies within her range to enhance her Soultrait. This effect is even stronger if several conditions are met. First, if your bodies are in contact, Heaven's Descent can naturally traverse through her body to reach your War Rune. Second, your Soultraits have to be compatible to ensure that your Soul Power is not incompatible with Maria's. The higher the compatibility rate the more Soul Power she can use temporarily. Third, if you trust Maria enough to use your Soul Power to achieve the goal you want to achieve as well, you can naturally increase the amount of Soul Power that is transferred to her momentarily. All of those reasons combined are probably the reason why Archangel's Grace's full power was unleashed.
To explain it without using all those complicated terms, your War Rune was altered as a trace of Maria's Soultrait infiltrated your War Rune – because you and Maria met all conditions I've mentioned just now," Zeke explained, only for Kaleb to interrupt.
"Something you should know is that the shape of the Seraph family's War Rune was always a little bit different from everyone else. There are a few families with War Runes of different shapes. Some say that their altered War Runes are more powerful when using certain Soultraits, while others say that the shape of the War Rune doesn't change anything."
Lincoln then added, "You don't have to worry too much about that though. Everyone from the Seraph family, including the members who married into the Seraph family, have altered Soultraits."
Michael's scowl deepened.
"So, you mean that the War Runes of those who married to the Seraph family look like mine?" He asked, pointing at the dimly glowing Angel on the back of his hand.
"Yeah…basically," Lincoln said, noticing that he might have given Michael too much information when he was, in fact, not yet ready.
"Everyone, including you guys, told me that this is troublesome. What exactly is troublesome about this?" Michael asked. He looked over to Lincoln and added, "You don't want me to believe that anyone can force me to join some family through marriage? That sounds like the story of a cliche drama show with overused tropes."
"Well, it is troublesome because I heard that everyone marked by the Seraph family will have to join them one way or another. I think they heard the same, otherwise, they wouldn't have said that it is troublesome," Zeke responded, his heterochromatic eyes lingering on Michael's face. He was trying to read Michael's expressions and how he would react to the news.
"I have to join the Seraph family? I don't think I will though," Michael responded lightly. There was no way that they could force him to join their family. It didn't make sense. All Michael tried to do was to help Maria tend to everyone's wounds. It was an emergency, and not like he wanted to be marked by her.
"If our Soultraits weren't compatible, or I wouldn't have allowed her to use 90% of my Soul Power temporarily, would I have gotten marked…or not?" Michael then asked, still trying to understand the principle behind the Seraph family's Soultrait and Inheritance Technique.
"How do you not know how rare it is for someone to be mark–...Ahh, right. You are not a Descendant. I forgot again," Zeke cursed quietly, clearing his throat to answer Michael's question with a much calmer mind. "It is very rare to get Marked randomly. Usually the Seraph family searches for years to find a suitable Amplifier for their descendants. The Seraph family searched for Maria's mother for almost two decades. Her father is one of the two Lords with a 6-Star Healing Soultrait in the Seraph family if you didn't know that. Yet, Maria has a 7-Star Soultrait…"
The more Michael listened intently, the more his head began buzzing with doubts. "So the stronger the Soultrait the harder it is for the Seraph family to find a suitable Amplifier…because an Amplifier needs to have compatible Soultraits – usually one Soultrait – with an enormous amount of Soul Power. And since high-ranked Soultraits usually have more Soul Power than weaker Soultraits, Maria has to find her Amplifier among the offspring – or those with powerful Soultraits…I guess?"
Heaven's Descent was definitely a weird technique.
Michael understood what an Amplifier was since he witnessed it first hand. An Amplifier enhanced the power of the Seraph family's Soultrait through their Inheritance technique.
With a suitable Amplifier the Seraph family could create miracles just like Maria did in the Colosseum.
"So I am now Maria's Amplifier…because we wanted to rescue everyone? That sounds like…bullshit," Michael grumbled. "Can't she search for another Amplifier? Maria might have to search for a while, but if nobody tells the Seraph family about the incident everything will be alright, right?"
The moment the words left his mouth, Michael realized how stupid he sounded. Too many people – Descendants at that – had seen the tremendous power Maria's Soultrait unleashed thanks to him. If that was not enough, many had also seen the changes his War Rune underwent. It was near-impossible to ensure that everyone would keep their mouth shut in front of their parents and the Seraph family.
"If it was that easy, you would be a very lucky guy…or unlucky since most people would love to be linked with Maria. I don't think you understand how many people are – and will be – envious of you," Kaleb said, causing Michael to retort, "Like you?"
Kaleb shook his head lightly but glanced over to Lincoln. Lincoln was a good guy, but Michael could tell that the Descendant of the Piedra family looked at his War Rune longingly.
'Does he like Maria? Well, she is beautiful and her personality doesn't seem to be too bad either. She wanted to rescue everyone while those idiots of her fan club wanted to help only their kind. It's understandable that Lincoln fancies her.'
"Let me be blunt with you," Lincoln said once he'd gotten his emotions under control, "Many would be jealous of you for being Maria's Primal Amplifier. Numerous Descendants who won't inherit their family's business or won't become patriarch/matriarch would love to join the Seraph family. Even heirs of Great Families would consider joining the Seraph family if they were Maria's Amplifier – her Primal Amplifier at that!"
Michael was just about to ask what a Primal Amplifier actually is and what it meant to be Maria's Amplifier when Lincoln lifted his hand.
"Maria never used her Inheritance Technique with someone else other than her family. As a member of the Seraph family and household, you are either related to Maria by blood, or you are an Amplifier of Maria's parents or relatives. None of them can become Maria's Amplifier because blood relatives and those who were already Amplifiers of her family cannot establish a connection with her. If you are blood related, or your Soultraits are too similar, an Amplification Mark can never link you two together. You are different…too different – if I were to be blunt –, yet somehow Maria's Soultrait still accepted you. That's weird, but let's leave that aside for now.
Fact is that you are the first potential Amplifier, whom she used Heaven's Descent with. You were compatible enough to create the Mark of Fate…That's what the Seraph family calls the first Mark that can only be established between Maria and the Primal Amplifier.. Therefore a tiny portion of her Soultrait now resides in your War Rune. Your connection will grow stronger, thus nurturing the power Maria will be able to exhibit with her Soultrait even if she doesn't use her Inheritance Technique.
"Through your connection, Maria's power will always be amplified as long as she is close to you, whereas you are the only Amplifier of Maria, who will ever be able to naturally strengthen the shard of Maria's Soultrait within you. You will naturally collect Soul Power within the shard which both of you can use," Lincoln explained, his voice growing more and more tired.
He had no energy to speak to Michael any longer. It pained his heart too much.
Kaleb didn't really care too much about Lincoln's pain as he added, "You will be able to hoard a portion of her Soultrait's power as well when you stay close to her. That way you can use Archangel's Grace as well even if it won't be as powerful."
Michael listened intently, but he sincerely wished that he didn't understand a single thing. Unfortunately, that was not the case.
'So only one Primal Amplifier can exist, which is the first person who is marked by the Inheritance Technique due to high compatibility of Soultraits and some other factors. That dude is quite unlucky…aka me…'
Being able to use a portion of Maria's Soultrait sounded like a blessing, but turning into the Primal Amplifier of Maria Seraph would push him in the center of attention…the High Society's attention no less.
Michael could already imagine hundreds, if not thousands, of people blaming him for becoming Maria's Primal Amplifier despite being a nobody. Many would definitely try to bully him and give him a hard time wherever he went. At the same time, the Seraph family would probably think that he had ill intentions and selfish motives for trying to get close to their beloved prodigy. Michael could already imagine them 'interrogate' him via torture to find out what intentions he had when he approached Maria.
He was just a nobody without a family. That made everything even worse in the High Society's eyes.
The impression he was bound to make in the eyes of others was certainly sub-zero.
"That will be fun," Michael murmured, not feeling funny at all.
"But let's look at it from the brighter perspective," Kaleb said, causing everyone to turn to the blue-haired youth.
"We don't have any time to dwell upon the subject of Maria and Michael turning into her Primal Amplifier. There is something far more troublesome waiting for us!"
"Is there something more troublesome than the chance of being forced to join a family I know nothing about?" Michael blurted out right before he realized something.
Ah…right. They had been under attack.
[A/N: It's me, the Author. November has just begun but we're already in a big dilemma with Michael and his...his what? What will Maria Seraph be? Is she the female lead or...is it someone else? Give me your guesses and drop some fancy reviews on the site. :D]
