A month has passed since returning from Tharrelan... and everyone has settled down, including Shalia. She was shocked, frozen stuck in fact after learning that she put the moves on the Demon Lord’s fiancé and was very scared at what the Demon Lord would do to her, but when she met him, he treated her nicely and she felt even more guilty about what she’d done. I guess this was the Demon Lord’s way of punishing her for her actions. She didn’t need to feel guilty for long though as they allocated a room adjacent to Marcel’s to her and treated her as hospitably as anyone can be treated in the Great Demon Lord’s castle. She ate well, she slept well and the best part was that she could always wake up early to go look at Marcel’s sleeping face, as slightly creepy as that sounds. She was living the life and enjoying everything except for the fact that she basically stood no chance at attaining Marcel’s heart if the hot Demon Lord was around. 

Well, enough about Shalia. How’s Marcel doing? Well, grounded, of course. You might ask yourself why, so I’ll explain. 

It all started a week after Marcel arrived when Claude noticed something weird about Marcel’s magic energy and put Sephana to investigate what was happening inside Marcel and to get an accurate picture of that, Sephana suggested that he not be allowed to use magic power not train with the sword or do anything that might rouse up energies; be it physical, magical or any other type of energy inside Marcel, then took a sample of his magic energy to study. Since then, he hasn’t been allowed to pick a sword or use any magic because the maids have been watching him constantly and even open the faucet run by magic power for him. He’s slightly miserable because he hasn’t been able to do much over the past few days and it irks him. 

Past forward to the present and currently, he sits in Sephana’s hospital inside the Demon Lord’s castle with the Demon Lord and Claude present at her behest. She had shimmering eyes that once could tell was from discovering something amazing and now, she was ready to reveal it. 

“You remember that magic sample I took from you, Marcel? Well, I finally analyzed it, and guess what?! You’re clear water!” She sounded so excited. 

“Clear Water?” The three asked at the same time, not understanding what she meant. 

“Sorry, I didn’t make myself clear! You’re not actually water but your magic power seems to have the attributes of clear water, and a very strange kind.” She explained. 

“Strange how?” The Demon Lord curiously asked. 

“Well, allow me to explain. As you all know, everyone’s magic energy takes on the attribute of other energies like natures and roots presented to it, right?” 

“Yeah!” Claude and the Demon Lord nodded in agreement. 

“At least, I thought this was always the case until just now.” She said, looking at Marcel. 

“You guys know a lot about body constitution since you have unique ones, so do I and it looks like Marcel does as well, is what I discovered. I call it, the ‘Clear Blackhole Power Battery’ constitution. Normal bodies want to absorb and take on the nature of the energies that are introduced to it like pouring something into water and watching it become homogenized as it takes on the properties of the added substance but in Marcel’s case, however, it’s the exact opposite, or close anyway. 

“You remember how you told me about the Demon Lord’s essence disappearing from Marcel’s body entirely after a few days of being inside him, right, Claude?” Claude nodded to her words. It was very strange at the time as what should have happened was that Marcel’s body should have taken on the properties of the Demon Lord’s essence and felt like he’d been very intimate with the Demon Lord but that doesn’t seem to be the case at all. It was also one of the reasons why the Demon Lord asked the Spirit of the World to help him in masking Marcel’s energies from others because he feared that Marcel’s energy had been tainted by his. 

“Well, this explains it. Unlike normal bodies which take on the properties of the energies they absorb to some extent, Marcel’s does the exact opposite. The foreign energies that enter his body are isolated and forced to take on the nature of his energy instead of the conventional way. Basically, it purifies any energy that enters Marcel’s body into its own pure energy and leaves only the bare minimum of that energy’s former shadow. You get what I mean?” She looked so excited as she stared at Marcel as she’d just found a guinea pig. 

“Then doesn’t that mean that he’s the only benefitting party in this exchange of energies?” Claude looked so shocked with his wide eyes as if he’d just learned the secret of the century.  

“Yes, it seems the dragons and elves are out of luck. Marcel’s body took in their energies and refined it into his own unlike the other way around, meaning he gains all the benefits and might not even transform into a dragon or an elf at the end of his life. His energy seems to really hate being tainted. If even the Demon Lord’s powerful essence can’t take hold inside Marcel, then nothing else can. As we speak now, the two different energies are being purified and its contents extracted by Marcel’s body for itself, meaning that in time, the power of the Dragon Crest and the Sources’ natures inside him will become his. Do you understand the implications?” Sephana looked even more excited than she did earlier. The Demon Lord and Claude stood there in awe at what they’d just learn might mean. Marcel’s body takes making power one’s own to an entirely different level. 

“I’ve got to run some more tests to entirely sure but from what I already see, Marcel’s a living power cleansing blackhole battery storing up purified versions of various energies that have taken on the properties of his pure magic energy. Isn’t that fascinating?” The woman looked ready to burst from excitement as she looked at Marcel who was about to become her lab rat. 

“Sephana, your inner researcher is showing.”, Claude told his sister. 

“But isn’t this fascinating? Think of all the things that can be done with Marcel’s energy! We can solve a lot of problems if I can fully analyze and try reproducing it.” She sounded so excited and imagined the possibilities that could come from working with Marcel’s magic power. 

<< Don’t even think about it! >> They heard a voice from above. The pesky spirit who watches it all interferes once again. 

“Vitalis?” The Demon Lord wondered if it was his friend, the Spirit of the World who was talking and it was.  

<< Yes, it’s me! Marcel’s secret stays in this room for the most part. Just tell anyone who notices that his body can accommodate a lot of energies and add his own magic properties to it and nothing else. >> She said to her friend. 

<< Oh! And you, Doctor! Don’t even think about reproducing his body’s energy! If you do, heaven and hell will break loose, literally! >> Vitalis warned, then her voice disappeared. Silence spread through the room as everyone tried to fathom the meaning behind Vitalis’s words. 

Meanwhile, back in Yggdrasil’s dimension, 

“Whew! Managed to keep that secret safe for today. Sorry father, but this will be a lot harder than that. Until then, nobody must learn about his connection to the Glass Soul.” She uttered. What meaning could be behind her words, well, only time will tell. After all, it’s a secret regarding the birth of the universe and herself. And who is this ‘father’ person she speaks about? 

 

As they continued to try and figure out what the Spirit of the World meant by her words, Marcel who didn’t fully understand this had this strange feeling that he must never try to fully understand the secret of his body before the world allows him to or else, something bad will happen to him. Because of this, he quickly put the thought of asking to know more behind the back of his head and would never think about it for years to come until the day the world permitted him to. 

“Moving on, from what I currently see, I’m uncertain, but there’s a chance that he might not transform at all at the end of his life, even with all the power seeds that he has. It could be that he just stays a human who can use draconic and elven magic on top of all his other awakened elements. His energy appears to not want to be changed by anyone.” She explained to the Demon Lord and Claude as she reported what she found after examining Marcel’s body. 

The two processed the information they’d received from Sephana and as they did, she kicked them out, leaving only Marcel and herself inside the room. Marcel dreaded being alone with her for she was but a molester who left him feeling weird in some ‘places’ and just as he covered himself like a trapped hamster with nowhere left to run as she approached him, he was shocked to find out that what she had planned might be even worse than he thought. 

“Strip and lie on the bed!” She asked. Marcel immediately blushed after she said that. 

“What are you saying, you fiend?! What do you want to do with me?!” He exclaimed in embarrassment. 

“Sorry! Looks like I didn’t make myself clear enough. Even though you’re attractive and would like to take the liberty of gobbling you down all by myself...” she said with lustful eyes that sent shivers down Marcel’s spine, “...unfortunately, I can’t do that, not now or even because ‘someone’ has already laid claim to you. I’ll just have to live with copping a feel of you but not now, so be safe.” She reassured Marcel although, her reassuring him to him, felt like she’d just said that she’d molest him even more in the future, the poor boy! 

As Sephana had said, she wasn’t going to molest him now, so he felt a bit safer now than he did before she reassured him. Although he didn’t want to, he took off most of his clothes, leaving only his underwear, and laid on the bed as she’d instructed. 

“Turn!” She said to Marcel who’d laid face up unlike what she’d wanted. Now, Marcel really wanted to know what she was going to do to him. Was she going to molest him from behind unlike what she’d said she wouldn’t do or was this for something else? 

Sephana answered his questions before he asked them,  

“I’m going to give you a massage to help better stabilize the different energies currently inside your body. Right now, both Alverona’s Dragon Crest’s energy and the Natures of the Elven Kings are battling it out, trying to assert dominance over the other, unknowing that they’re currently being refined by your body to become a part of your energy. If they aren’t stabilized, then something bad could happen to you when their fight reaches its peak. Although we can’t stop them from fighting until your body fully refines them, we can at least, make their battle inside you less extreme than it currently is by spreading the energies in different places.”  

“I see! So, you weren’t going to molest me?” Marcel felt reassured but he felt safe was too soon. 

“I will! Just not today, so feel safe in my arms, Marcy-Marcy.” She said, grabbing his butt cheek and squeezing it slightly. 

“Eep! Hey!” Marcel exclaimed. 

“Ok, back to business. Let’s begin! Start by relaxing! Show no resistance at all as my hand guides the energies inside your body. If you do, the entire process could backfire and both energies will fight even harder than before. Remember that my job is to make it easier on your body before your body finishes refining them, okay?” 

“Understood! I’ll be completely still during this time!” Marcel vowed. 

“Ah~~ Such a pristine time to have my way with you and I have to be doing this? What a shame!” Sephana spoke disappointedly. She grabbed the massaging oil from her spatial storage and began. 

“Now relax and let me guide the two energies away from the heart of their battleground to different parts of your body...” she spoke relaxingly as she calmed Marcel down with the movements of her oiled hands before beginning to direct the energies. 

“The energy of the dragons originates from its source at your heart, so let’s direct it back there...” 

“The energy of the elves spreads through your body via your veins. Let’s slowly stimulate them and get them running at a slower pace... That way, they won’t meet the dragon energy as often when its power enters your ever-flowing magic pool. By doing it this way, your body can take the time to purify them while they aren’t meeting each other, which will put you less in danger.” She spoke relaxing to Marcel as he listened to her explain her every action and before he knew it, she had relaxed him enough to get him to sleep through the massage.  

As he slept and she continued to massage him, she noticed a physical change in Marcel as she not only stabilized the two foreign energies inside him but also his own energy. Right when she created a stable dancing loop for the energies, including Marcel’s, his pale silvery hair attained a brighter shade of silver; a more silver shade to it. Right about then, Marcel awoke from his nap to questions from Sephana. 

“What made you pick white silver hair during the transformation ritual? Would you mind telling me?” She asked sleepy Marcel who was still not fully awake from his nap. 

“Yawn! I didn’t choose the silver hair. It was the Spirit of the World who did. Yawn! I wanted platinum blond hair and green eyes but then, after I got that, she suddenly changed it and I ended up with this. My eyes turned out uneven colors because of this and she looked to want to do even more if the ritual hadn’t been canceled by the Demon Lord.” He spoke sleepily as he tried to wake himself up from what was the most relaxing massage in his life that put him right to sleep. 

“Ho! Have you ever seen the physical form of the Spirit of the World? Those who have, say that she has silver hair and is believed to bestow this quality of herself unto those she’s fond of. Some races also worship people with silver for various reasons like the witches who believe that silver is the shade of magic in its purest, untainted form; the color closest to transparency.” 

“Why?” Marcel asked. 

“They believe that the Witch Originator, mother of all witches also had silver hair and since she is the mother of their magic, is the most sacred of them all and thus, everything about her is considered sacred, even the color of their hair. They also believe that one’s magic purity is revealed in the color of their hair and that cannot be changed no matter how much one modifies it. The fact that your hair is changing into a more silver shade, according to witches, means that this is the color of hair you were born with and that this is merely it reverting to its natural form. Strange, huh?” 

“Yeah! As if I could have been born a witch. That sounds ridiculous!” Marcel scoffed at Sephana’s words. Sephana, however, thought that none of the Spirit of the World’s choices for Marcel was by any means a random choice or a coincidence. That spirit is so secretive that even the Demon Lord can’t pry information out of her if she doesn’t want to give it. A truly elusive being she is. 

“Then what about my eyes? Will they also magically change into a uniform color as well because I really want even-colored eyes.” Marcel stated, hoping that there was a chance the Spirit of the World heard him and answered his request but nothing. She wasn’t ready to give Marcel another gift until he unboxed his previous one. 

“I can’t say for sure, but I know that if you gain enough EP points, you can ask her for it and if she agrees to it, you can have your wish granted. You’re a hero and the world’s your oyster. Your wish may someday be granted if she feels like making it come true.”  

“Okay!” Marcel felt like crying as he realized that the many things in his life were controlled by an enigmatic should-have-been-partial spirit who rules his universe with whims as unpredictable as to when one would see a pig fly. But then again, she controls whether pigs fly or not, so even that is decided by her. This day has led to more questions than answers to the Demon Lord, Claude, Sephana, and Marcel with questions like ‘What is the Spirit of the World hiding from us?’ and ‘What secrets does Marcel’s body hold?’ and ‘When will I get my pair of even eyes?’ being raised and whether they get an answer or not is determined by a partial spirit with whims as unpredictable as every action she takes. 

With the more serious and impending matters out of the way, Marcel finally decided to ask something he was thinking about before going to sleep and waking up with even more luscious silver hair. 

“You talked about the Demon Lord’s, Claude’s, and your constitutions when you were about to talk about mine. I’m very curious! What are these unique constitutions that you three possess?” He asked Sephana. 

“Well, for starters. I possess what I named the ‘Underworld Gate Constitution’, created from the combination of my parents’ elven and draconic natures fusing various aspects of themselves to create a unique body. This constitution makes me highly connected to the realm of darkness and dead: The Underworld and after I signed a contract with a king of the Underworld, I became a Gate to that realm of death. This allows me to see spirits, souls, bring people back to life if ‘He’ wills it and overall, maintain the order of life and death as his avatar in this world.” 

“Who is ‘He’?” Marcel asked. 

“If you don’t want to die early, then it’s better if you don’t know his name. I said his true name once and almost killed my mother. Just ‘Hades’ is fine!” Sephana answered. 

“Then what about the Demon Lord’s and Claude’s?” 

“Well, there’s are so unique that probably no one in the world has it, just like yours. The Demon Lord’s is the strangest right after yours. His body’s natural essence is the most adaptable in the world and can take in all sorts of energies with no end in sight at the number of transformations he can undergo, meaning that he can be virtually anything if his body meets that being’s energy. Not only that, but he can also do anything to perfection even if he’s just once. Oh, and whomever he gives a compliment or smiles to, gains an absurdly huge amount of good luck. Now, you know one of the reasons why he’s the Demon Lord. 

“Claude’s seems simple but is very mysterious. From the day he was born, his body has been able to teleport anywhere he wants to go to without needing a drop of magic power to fuel his spatial movement. Not only that but after he met the Demon Lord, he could even disappear from the world to a place where space and time don’t exist, a place far away from this plane, meaning he has watched a lot of pasts and futures although, this other power is also very dangerous. It takes away his memories of the present, his memories of this plane, if he stays there too long and even if he does see a future in a world far away from this one, that doesn’t necessarily mean he gets to keep those memories when he returns here. You understand what I’m saying now?” 

“Yes? That does sound mysterious?” Marcel agreed with Sephana. 

“It adds to mysteries like why we and the Dragon Progenitors are the only twins ever to be born in the Dragon race.” 

“Wait, Alverona mentioned this before. That seems very strange!” Marcel laid on the bed, deep in thought. 

“Ooh~ Alverona? You call grandaunt Alverona? Now, why would she allow you to do that?” Sephana wondered suspiciously. Just what was that old hag planning? 

“Don’t know! She said to call her either that, Alvy, ‘honey’ or ‘baby’.” Marcel answered innocently and Sephana felt like going to her grandaunt to ask why she would ask Marcel to call her by such ‘questionable’ names. Now that she thinks about it, she hasn’t visited in a while, so she will right after this. 

“We’re done, Marcel! Put your clothes back on and go back to doing whatever it is you were doing before now. I have to go see someone now.” She commanded. Marcel did as she requested and left, remembering what he had wanted to do since he began his stay in Tharrelan. He went back to his room and when he arrived, he called Alverona. 

Receiving her first telepathic call from Marcel, she answered immediately, and they began talking: 

 

Alverona: Hello, Little Marcy!  

Marcel: Yes, hello, woman who caused me to suffer at the hands of the elves. 

Alverona: Hey, that wasn’t my fault! It was theirs for trying to steal you when I already gave you the Dragon Crest. 

Marcel: But you didn’t tell me anything about what it actually was until I went to the elves and learned about it. 

Alverona: Yeah, so maybe I might have added a few more things and it was a Dragon Root all along, but it was for your own good. 

Marcel: Um, how almost getting me killed at the elves for my own good *anger*. 

Alverona: Sure, the Dragon Crest was a psychic link to the Dragon Database and myself and maybe contained a clump of my dragon essence as well as my draconic genes, but it also included a blessing. Check your Informer’s ‘Blessings’ section if you know how to. 

Marcel checked as she’d mentioned and found [Blessing of the Dragon Empress] under his acquired blessings. 

Marcel: What is that? 

Alverona: It not only provides you a steady stream of my magic to keep you connected to the Dragon Database albeit not being a dragon but also, this blessing borrows my aura as well to protect you in tough, life-threatening situations. Depending on where you are, it may be more or less effective. You understand? 

Marcel: Then why didn’t it activate while I was being tortured in Tharrelan? Was I not in extreme danger then? 

Alverona: Yes. The blessing deemed its activation unnecessary in that situation because they didn’t do any real damage to you. If they had, I would have personally come to smack them in the face, but I didn’t need to because you were fine. 

Marcel: Then that thing is useless. 

Alverona: Hey, don’t diss the precious gift from me to you. 

Marcel: I’ll call it precious when it actually saves my life when I need it to. 

Alverona: You ungrateful little child! 

Marcel: Hahaha... 

 

And so, the two continued to talk until Sephana reached her grandaunt’s palace where she tried to figure out her grandaunt’s plans for the little hero. Marcel went back to being unable to do anything physical and focused on reading and acquiring knowledge to pass the time until he found something more interesting to do.