Chapter 0099

Kataigida explained everything that happened with the Elders.

First, the issue of Resonance.

A Resonance Bond occurs when the spirits of two mages were linked at one time.

At the time of creation when the spirits came into being, they were in their collectives, consisting of one hundred spirits for each element tightly bound together.

Bonds can break. It might be harder for the spirits to break their bonds but over the eons they existed, there were frictions among the spirits and the bonds that held them together broke.

When the bonds between spirits break, the spirits divide into different collectives and go their own separate ways. This is also the reason why mages have different affinities levels.

Bonds can break, but remnants remain between the two newly form collectives. Should their mortals cultivate the heart as their immortal path and meet each other, then the remnant bonds are triggered. The remnant bond isn’t enough for the spirits to meld together again but it does create a link between the mortals. This link is call Resonance.

The effect of the Resonance varies between mortals. It is generally based on the needs of the mortals and will change along with the mortal.

When Kataigida said they had a Resonance bond, she wasn’t lying. Mizu is part of Tempest’s collective. She just temporarily takes up residence in a puppet to aid Tempest.

Kataigida can also use the excuse the bond provides to protect Tempest when the need arises without raising questions. Tempest could come clean and admit she is the True Daughter of Storm, but since the misconception already occurred, Tempest wasn’t going the clarify the issue. She wants to take advantage of the misconception and establish herself as a mage before she tackles the responsibilities that come with being a True Daughter of Storm.

The issue of the Bestowment was a bit complex.

Mages don’t have bottlenecks nor do they have heart demon, inner demons or whatnot that plagues them. The spirits view the inner turmoil of their mortals as the most delicious source of energy. They habitually feed on the inner demons of their mortals.

The knowledge that mages don’t suffer from inner demons is common knowledge, yet common knowledge, like rumors, becomes distorted over time.

Mages don’t suffer from inner demons and whatnot like the other immortal potential path, but mages do have regrets; regrets which could potentially stop them from becoming an immortal.

The mages don’t realize they harbor regret themselves. They never notice nor pay attention to these regrets since they believe the spirits would handle it for them. What doesn’t affect their cultivation get sidelined.

However, this shouldn’t be the right attitude to take when cultivating affinities. The mortals themselves should work on their mental maturity and handle the obstacles themselves. Just because their cultivation wasn’t affected doesn’t mean it wasn’t a problem.

It was only years later did mages realized the truth about the distorted knowledge but by then it was too late to try to fix the problem.

The mages at the Mastery level of cultivation buried their regret so deep in their hearts they don’t realize they have regrets in the first place. Only when they need to fix, the issue did they realize it was an issue but by then so much time had already passed. They couldn’t even identify the issue, much less solve it.

The Bestowment is actually another spirit collective opening a third-party line of communication. One side knows there is a problem but doesn’t know anything else aside from the fact that there is a problem. The other side knows all the issues their mortals have but they can’t effectively communicate with their mortal. 

There are three requirements for the Bestowment to work. The third-party affinities must be higher than the mage who is receiving the Bestowment. They must share an elemental affinity. The cultivation level of the mage doing the Bestowment must be lower than the mage receiving the Bestowment.

Take for example mage A, B, and C. Mage A has 92 fire and 72 lightning affinities, mage B has 80 water and 73 light affinities and mage C has 81 fire and 64 earth affinities. Mage A can’t perform the Bestowment on mage B since they don’t have the same shared elemental affinities.

Tempest didn’t notice it before, but all the mages who received the affinities from Kataigida previously either had a lightning, water or wind affinity.

Yelin had fire lightning affinities; Revelan had wind light affinities, and Asclon had water earth affinities.

Mage A and mage C both have fire affinities and mage A fire affinities are higher than mage C but he still can’t perform the Bestowment on mage C. Mage A lightning affinities is 72, which is lower than mage C 81 fire affinities. In order for mage A to perform the Bestowment on mage C, all of his elemental affinities must be higher than 81.

Children of the Elements and True Children of the Elements are generally the ones who can perform the Bestowment, however, most mages don’t expect a Child of the Elements to be able to perform the Bestowment because a Child of the Elements can have one affinity above 90 another at 60. He or she is still a Child of the Elements but their other affinities place limitations on them.

A True Child of the Elements is the one whom the high-level mages sought to perform the Bestowments.

This is a sense brings forth the third requirement for the Bestowment. The mage who receives the Bestowment has to have a higher cultivation level than the one giving the Bestowment.

Unlike cultivators from other domains, mages can’t sense the cultivation or power levels of their opponents.

A benefit of the unique traits of the mage is the intimating effects it has on other cultivators. Cultivators might be fighting a powerful mage or they might be confronting a weak mage who is trying to bluff their way out. They won’t know unless the force the mage’s hand. Hence, when cultivators enter the Magus Alliance, they are careful not to pick a fight unless they have to.

The same benefit can also be a disadvantage. The mage won’t know the powerful levels of the cultivators they are fighting with. Cultivators from other realms might take it beneath their notice to fight with someone much weaker than themselves, yet mages go by the ‘if a fight starts, kill all the enemies or die trying mentality. The mages don’t care about the cultivation levels of their opponents. It is not beneath their notice to kill others weaker than themselves.

This mentality and the mage lack of ability to discern danger cause a lot of death among mages.

A True Child of the Elements is literally a death trap on two legs. If the spirits are careless with their power, explosion. If the body of a True Child of the Elements is not strong enough, explosion. If there is a massive fluctuation in the ambient mana in the air, explosion… and so forth.

A Child of the Elements already has a hard time surviving the loving embrace of their spirits, adding cultivators from other realms trying to kill them, lack of control over their spells, going to into potentially deadly area due to their inability to discern dangers, aggravating other cultivators and a whole host of other factors drastically lowers their mortality rate. A True Child of the Elements has it a hundred times worse.

The spirits are not heartless to the plight of their mortals. A True Child of the Elements is much loved by their spirits. Their spirits exert a large amount of effort to ensure their survival. A Bestowment is one of those efforts.

The weak but loved mages can perform the Bestowment and in return, the mage who receives the Bestowment gives a token to the True Child of the Elements, promising to help the True Child of the Elements in their time of need.

Kataigida has created three trump cards Tempest can use whenever she is in danger.

“These are the token representing Revelan and Asclon. Crush the token when you are in danger and it will open a portal to the owner of the token. You can escape through the portal, or the owner of the token can come to you. Generally, they come to you. Yelin will send you her token after she comes out of seclusion.”

“Speaking of Yelin’s situation, you know more about it than you are letting on aren’t you?” Tempest asked in an accusing tone. Even though Mizu has taken control of a puppet, Tempest has lived with them long enough to know when they aren’t speaking the whole truth.

If it is about something they didn’t want Tempest to know, they’d evade the questions with vague answers. Since the question is about another mage, they have absolutely no scruples and would immediately reveal what they knew about the situation but since Yelin isn’t their mortal, they didn’t know much about her.

We don’t know much about her situation. Even her spirit doesn’t know the complete details either. They know of her conception because they were there to bond with her but not what happened before. We’ve heard whispers and rumors here and there but words spoken with no substance should not be conveyed as fact to the interested party. It is better for her to seek the answers for herself. Ventus answered on behalf of Mizu since her abilities have a better information gathering aspect to it.

“Good to know you guys are omnipotent.”

Google isn’t omnipotent.

“So you're saying you're like a search engine but I have to input the criteria and screen the information to see if it is relevant or not.” Tempest giggles at the metaphor she made between a spiritual entity and a search engine. “Greetings Google sensei.”

Similar functions, different methods. I prefer Ventus sensei. You may refer to me as such from now on. Ventus tried to joke with Tempest.

Tempest giggles turned into full-blown laughter at Ventus haughty tone.

Everyone knows Tempest wasn’t laughing at their jokes. The spirits may exist at the dawn of creation but their ability to grasp the concept of humor is very lacking.

Despite their inability to understand Tempest, they still long for the day when Tempest looks upon them with love.

They knew today wasn’t the day, but it was a start.

It was enough for them.