Kail asked Teacher James about the branches of the elements the following afternoon. Teacher James pulled a sheet of paper from his bag and a pencil. He began writing down each element and their branches as he spoke.

The water element had three branches: ice, fog, and ocean. The ice branch covered those who could create snow, ice, and freezing water. Fog covered those who could create fogs, mists, steam and water of varying temperatures. Ocean covered those who could only use regular water of warm or higher temperatures. They had the ability to create rain, tsunamis, and even water spouts.

The fire element had four branches: lightning, liquid, white, and spectrum. Lightning covered those who could create lightning and fire. Liquid, one of the stronger of the four, covered those who could create liquid fire. White covered those who create white flames, the hottest type of fire. Spectrum covered those who create flames of temperatures up to the purple color, just below white. Each branch could use flames to create firenadoes, walls of fire, and even fire storms.

The earth element had four branches: lava, mineral, rock, and metal. Lava covered those who could create or control lava. Mineral covered those who could use existing minerals to do what they desire. Rock covered those who could manipulate dirt, sand, rock, and other aspects of earth. Metal covered those who could manipulate metals regardless of purity.

The sky element had two branches: air and weather. Air covered those who could create and manipulate air of varying temperatures. Weather covered those who could manipulate the weather to their will. Most could only manipulate weather to a small degree but a rare few managed to become strong enough to completely take over the weather and even create it.

The blood element had three branches: healing, attack, and puppeteer. Healing covered the majority of those with this element. They used their element to eradicate disease and illness. Attack covered those who manipulated blood to harm others. This branch was extremely rare. Puppeteer, like the attack branch, was also extremely rare. This branch covered those who could take control of life itself. No one knew exactly how it worked.

The light element had five branches: peace, warmth, life, blessing and purification. Peace covered those who used their element to calm others. Warmth covered those who used their ability to give a peaceful death to the dying. Life covered those who used their element to revive and heal horrible wounds such as the regrowth of a lost limb.

Blessing covered those who used their element to break curses. Purification covered those who could dispel darkness attacks and remnants of the element. This was the strongest in terms of defense. Those with this element had little chance of losing to someone of the darkness element.

The darkness element had no branches. The element could be used to do a variety of things by anyone born with it. They could use the element to turn into shadows, cover an area in darkness darker than a moonless night, use demonic arts, and even become ethereal so that attacks passed through them harmlessly.

Kail tilted his head a bit, his eyebrow arched. If he thought about it, darkness was the strongest in terms of variety of abilities. There was no known restriction for each ability. His blue-gray eyes scanned the paper as a question came to mind. “Wait. Who created the attack and puppeteer branches of the blood element?”

One individual came to mind. The Bloody Claw. He created the attack branch. But who created the puppeteer branch?

Teacher James frowned. “I do not know who created the two branches. That information has been lost to history. The only reason we know of it is because it was written down by scholars who managed to save the information before their memories were wiped clean of the creators.”

“Wiped clean?” Kail knew the answer but he had to satisfy his teacher by pretending he didn’t.

“Yes. When the scholars who wrote the information down discovered their work about the two branches, they realized they could not remember who created them nor how they knew about the branches. Only the gods and goddesses would know the answers we seek. But they stay silent whenever they are asked,” Teacher James explained.

Kail looked up at him. “That’s because more than likely a great calamity happened when those two branches were discovered.”

Teacher James nodded. “My pupil is quite smart. That’s the conclusion of the scholars. Us living beings may never know the answer till death.”

Kail found it a bit amusing that people had figured out the truth despite having their memories blocked and erased. “Do you think there’s information hidden from the public?”

Teacher James hummed. “Yes. There is theory that there is more information being withheld by the royal families across the continent. But no one has been successful in obtaining it or even discovering it.”

Kail bit the inner corner of his lip to stop a smile from forming. If he could use the shadow ability of his element, he could slip in and out of the royal archives. He would be the first to find that information without obstacles. He wondered if he could use that ability now.

He rested his gaze back on the paper and looked at the light element. “What branch do you think Storm has?”

“That is a good question. I believe he might have the purification branch. Given his personality, it suits him,” Teacher James replied.

Storm was a good person only when it came to benefits. Kail couldn’t see how James thought purification would suit him based on personality. It was true that they once shared a bond and that Storm was nice to those he cared about but that time was gone. Kail only saw his brother as an enemy now.

Yet it would make sense for him to have the purification branch. It would explain his confidence towards defeating Kail. It would also be a damaging blow from the Goddess of Light. Kail could only try to figure out a way past that overpowered defense of the purification branch.

He would need to battle someone with it to help in discovering a breakthrough attack. He cursed the lack of both the light and darkness elements. It made things far more difficult than it needed to be. For now, he could only hope that his brother had a different branch and that he wouldn’t have to meet someone with the purification branch later on.

But his luck never seemed to really hold out when it came to the Goddess of Light. At dinner that evening, Storm announced Kail’s fear. “I discovered I have the purification branch!” he exclaimed happily.

Kail felt his blood run cold. With that announcement, he could already see a tough fight between them. He hoped that the Goddess of Darkness would show up tonight or soon with his new teacher. He wanted to get straight to training to prepare for that difficult battle looming over him like a shadow.

Then an idea came to him. What if he killed his brother before then? Not through powers but through other means. Killing someone was nothing new to him. In his first life, he had worked for different gangs to survive. He had plenty of knowledge about how to take someone’s life.

As a child, that would prove difficult. The best option he could think of would be to poison Storm. He just had to hope that the purification branch didn’t include dispelling poison.

But where would I get poison? Kail noticed the elven dark spirit, who had been hovering in the corner of the room across from Kail, was glaring at Storm. That gave him an idea. If he couldn’t get ahold of the poison himself, he could use the dead for help. He would have to talk to the spirit as soon as dinner was over.

Kail felt like dinner lasted forever and let out a sigh when it finally ended. He took his time finishing his dessert and spoke to the spirit when everyone else had eventually left.

“Hey, dark spirit. What is your name?”

The spirit floated over to him, a smile lighting up his face. “My name is Spider.”

“Spider?” Kail echoed in surprise.

“Yes. It is a strange name, I know. It was given to me because of a birthmark on my shoulder. I ended up living up to my name with my abilities as well,” he laughed. “I was known for my spider web ability. I could even control spiders. The darkness element truly is fascinating, is it not?”

Kail felt like he had hit the jackpot. The spirit’s abilities would definitely come in handy. “Can you use those abilities as a spirit?”

“Yes but only if a contract has been made,” Spider responded happily. “I will gladly make one with you!”

“Contract?”

Spider nodded. “I see that Teacher James has not taught you about the contract aspect of the spirit world. Contracts can be made between the living and spirits for a variety of reasons. They are essential for spirits because they allow us to use our abilities again.”