Ena Core

The man stared at Jax.

"Could it be… you actually think you could win?"

"If I didn't why am I here?"

"…arrogant brat."

I've decided. I'm just going to bloody kill this little shit.

"Hmm," Cedric mused, looking at the two facing off. "It's already decided. The commoner boy doesn't even have a stance."

Edith curled her fingers into a fist.

Big brother Jax… is strong. I saw him beating up those bandits with his fists… but what about my father's guard?

"Come, brat!" the man scoffed. "I'll give you the first hit!"
And with that, he assumed a ready stance.

"Don't regret it," Jax smiled.

"Haha, arrogant-"

In the next second, Jax was in front him with his sword raised in a massive chop, which the man barely blocked, and the wind from the contact blew back the spectators hair like a gale.

"What the…??" the man gulped.

This kid… how is he so strong!? He's just a snotty brat!

Jax disappeared again, and suddenly the soldier's feet were swept out from under him and he crashed onto his side. Before he could even figure out that he had been tripped by a slash to his ankle, a heavy blow struck his wrist like a mallet and his hand instantly felt like it had disconnected from his body, his wooden word clattering to the ground.

"Huh?"

Then Jax whapped him right on the face with his sword, breaking his nose and sending a tooth pinging across the stone ground.

"…hoh."

Cedric was staring at Jax, who stood back upright and walked away from the fallen man with blood running down his jaw.

That kid… he's both fast and strong. And those sword moves aren’t that of some novice. Those are real moves honed from practice.

Edith was looking at Jax like she had seen a god, her large eyes shining with adoration,  Hemia was looking on in amusement, and the butler was beside himself with fury.

"HEY!! YOU!! YOU WEAKLINGS!! GET ON THERE AND GET HIM OUT OF THE-"

"Stop," Cedric ordered, coldly. "Edrick, you seem to be acting out on your own a lot today. Don't overstep your boundaries. Am I clear?"

Edrick bit his lip and tried to swallow his rage, but his fists were still clenched and his white moustache was quivering.

"Edrick," Cedric said, this time with a threatening tone in his voice, and staring straight at the butler. "Am. I. Clear?"

"Y-yes, my Lord."

"Good. You are now excused."
"Wait, what's he doing?" exclaimed on of the other guards.

Jax set the tip of his sword down on the stones of the duelling arena and looked straight at the spectators.

"Next."

"Two wins!"

Jax kicked the guard in the jaw, knocking him out.

"Three wins!"

He hurled him over his shoulder and embedded him the ground.

"Four wins!"

"Five wins!"

"Six!"

"Seven!!"

Jax beat all of them black and blue with his sword, sustaining no injury and winning each one within five seconds.

"THIRTEENTH WIN!"

"Ha… hahaha!!"

This is good. I almost lost an incredibly valuable asset! Thank the gods I decided to give him a chance.

"Welcome!" Cedric said, spreading his arms and laughing. "To  the Gilsend estate, Jaxin Zhang. Enjoy your stay here, and I hope that you will work for House Gilsend as a warrior."

"Thank you very much, my Lord," Jax said, bowing.

Yes!! A… 'powerful' backer.

"Master, are you sure that this House is the best backer for you? By my consideration, it's hardly up to your standards."
It's better than having nothing. If they're not strong right now… then I'll make them strong.

"Jax, didn’t they give you a bigger room?" Alicia asked.

Alicia Gilsend was the Gilsend Family's second genius, and she attended the Holy Oak Academy, which was the continent's third ranked magic academy. Like her mother, she had a head of long, flowing, golden hair and pearly green eyes.

"I don't need one," he replied, looking at his room that had once been a storage closet. There was a bed that took up half of the room, and opposite the bed there was a simple desk, drawer and cupboard, with only a sliver of ground between them. "It's enough."

"…I see. With you around… we might stand a chance at the next duel competition."

"Oh? When is it?"

"It's in four months," she replied. "It really isn't that long."

She bit her lip, and Jax could see that she was silently wishing that it would never come again.

“Four months,” Jax muttered. “That’s more than enough.”

“Pardon?” Alicia asked. “What I said before was just to make myself feel better… the people we fight in the duel competition are all Ena core users with a high star rank. And we only really awaken our Ena cores when we turn 16. Anyone awakening below the age of 16 is considered to be a genius."

"What age did you awaken at then, Miss Alicia?" Jax queried.

"Me? I awakened when I was fifteen. Arthur also awakened at fifteen. And the second eldest, Trillian, has also just awakened at fifteen."

"Huh, so everyone's a genius."

"Haha, you could say that... but it's nothing compared to the Ruxlyn's Marco Ruxlyn, who awakened at a mere twelve years old, and he is now a peak five-star swordsman."

"What star stage are you...?"

"I am... only at the raw 5-star stage at the moment," Alicia replied, looking a little forlorn. "Every time, I fight against the eldest daughter of the Ruxlyn family. But…"

"It's alright, my lady," Jax said. "I will ensure that House Gilsend does not lose another battle. So… please teach me how to awaken an Ena core."

Alicia sat on the edge of her bed, thinking.

As a noble, I don't really see too much of a difference between us and commoners, so I don't mind Jax being here… but to request teachings from me… I… I'm not confident I can teach him properly. What if he explodes…?????

Jax lay down on his back in his room. He had managed to get himself situated within a noble house, and it was clear and Cedric wanted him as an asset for his own purposes.

…it’s fine. There were many people in my past regressions who just wanted to use me for money. And I showed them all.

Jax closed his eyes and sunk deep into the soft cotton of the bed, in the cramped room with barely enough space for anything other than a bag.

…this isn't bad.

He didn't know when the last time he had properly slept in a normal bed was. On the battlefield against the Sovereigns on Earth, they would barely have two hours to catch some sleep amongst the barren rocks, charred and burnt by the impact of a thousand explosions, left smouldering by the heat of the endless seas of fire and burning corpses. He remembered watching the same scenes through his own eyes thousands of times, the gruesome deaths of his comrades, unable to save them even with the power he believed in. He remembered the determined, unrelenting eyes of those who refused to give in, burning with an unquenchable, fiery passion for victory; and also the eyes of those who broke, and became swallowed in fear, filled with a crazed terror, begging constantly to be released from that hell. He remembered those who became absorbed into the demonic landscape, turned into emotionless killing machines who walked into the battlefield with expressionless faces, existing solely for the purpose of war, their eyes cold and lifeless, just like those of the dead whom they trampled over. He remembered the colossal wrecks and empty shells of burnt out buildings, and tearing into stony bread with his teeth, desperately filling his stomach before they were once again clasped in the cold embrace of the Grim Reaper. He remembered the sneer of cold command plastered upon the wrinkled lips of the rock face of a statue which had once stood tall and proud, now half-buried in the dying soil. He remembered the brothers he had shared meals with being buried in crude mounds of black earth, marked with nothing but a lonely stick, left behind and forgotten by the world on foreign soil, only to be whisked away into the cradles of time by the regression after that one, where nothing would be changed.

…I won't let that happen again. I promise myself this every time we restart, and every time that promise is broken. This time, it's different. I intend to keep this promise, no matter what.

"When Trillian Gilsend returns to the estate," Alicia had warned him. "You should probably distance yourself from him. He's resented our House's predicament for ages, since he is very prideful, and he dislikes commoners especially, so you can probably assume that he won't be too welcoming to a commoner in his house."

…Trillian Gilsend. He's the second son of Cedric and Hemia Gilsend, and a peak 1-star warrior, talented in the sword. He's currently on a business trip to the 9th House, Rothsling, but he's due to return in a week.

At that moment, there was knock on his door. It was Alicia.

"Jax," she said, fiddling with her fingers. "I… I'll teach you how to try and awaken an Ena core. It normally takes a year, though."
"It's fine," he replied, smiling. "Thank you very much."
Alicia Gilsend. She's eighteen years of age, and a raw 5-star mage most talented in water and ice magic. In Chyraea, for mages there is a different system in magic that is very similar to the one we had back on Earth. Magic can either come as simple and pure Ena, or it can have an elemental attribute. The five main elements are wind, fire, earth, water and electricity. Each attribute also has unique branches, for example the more common ones like light, derived from fire, and ice from water. Then there are the rare ones, unique to one bloodline or a single person, like blood attribute, owned by a mage within the continent's top 10, or plant, which is unique only to elves.

"You create an Ena core through meditation," Alicia said. "Close your eyes and try and sense the dispersed fragments of Ena in your body, then gather them together one by one into a ball. Then you must receive help to safely refine the ball into an Ena core."

"I see."

It's pretty similar to forming mana veins back on Earth. Back then, we had to meditate and draw mana from our surroundings into ourselves. It seems that over here, instead of being in non-living beings like rocks and earth, Ena is in all living things, plants, animals and humans, although from what we can tell only humans have been able to gather Ena and form an Ena Core. But my experiences and battles on Earth have all told me one thing – and that's to never rule out unexpected variables from happening. Consider all terms that could happen.

"You never know what could happen, so always consider your choices as if you will die in any way."

That's what our main strategist, Oliver Blake told us every regression. So I can't rule out the possibility of plants and animals forming Ena cores.

Before he knew it, three days had passed, of constant meditation. Jax, instead of gathering the fragments of Ena spread through his body slowly, piece by piece, did them sector by sector instead. First he moved all of the pieces in his torso to his solar plexus, forming a small clump of Ena. Next, he gathered the Ena in his head down to the clump, enlarging it. Then his left arm, and then his right. He had just finished gathering it from his left leg slowly attracting every fragment towards his clump of Ena until they were reeled in a became one, and was now doing his right. Alicia had her hand on his back, helping him focus, but in reality she knew that she wasn't doing much.

...amazing. It's as though he's done it thousands of times before. Jaxin you... are really a natural genius.

"Alicia, I succeeded in gathering all the Ena into a clump," Jax said. "Please refine it for me."

"A-alright!"

Jax sat cross-legged upon the stone pedestal, with four Ena gems on each corner. Alicia was kneeling behind him, with her eyes closed, and both palms on her back.

She sure gets used to things quickly, huh. I didn't think she would agree to my request and begin teaching me pretty much immediately after I came to Gilsend.

"I'll begin now," Alicia said, sounding a little nervous. "I've only done this once before for Trillian so..."

"It’s alright," Jax reassured her. "I'll be fine."

She nodded.

"Ok. Remember what I told you? About maintaining focus?"

"Of course."

Alicia focused most of her Ena into her palms, and closed her eyes. She could sense Jax's Ena core, a near-perfect sphere of dark purple Ena.

…?? Dark purple? It's almost perfect too.... Jaxin, just who are you...?

She concentrated, and sent ten strands of fine Ena towards the core, and they slowly began to shape the rough edges of the clump into a smooth ball.

"Jax, now," she ordered, her eyes still squeezed tightly shut and a bead of sweat rolling down her cheek.

Jax inhaled deeply, before focusing as hard as he could on his Ena core, compressing and squeezing the clump smaller and smaller. Instantly, sharp tendrils of pain coursed through every inch of his body, from his fingernails to his eyes, and a small spurt of blood came flying out from between his lips. He felt like his abdomen had been stabbed by a molten sword, but he persisted and kept squeezing the Ena core smaller and smaller, with Alicia guiding and shaping it. The fire began to climb up his chest and into his throat, and he felt like doubling over to throw up all the blood inside him, but he remained calm and composed, enduring the pain.

This. Is. Nothing!

He gritted his teeth, his brow wet with sweat, and gave it one last, final effort, and squashed the Ena core like he had just crushed it with his fist, and a massive shockwave of energy blasted out from his body, knocking Alicia away a little.

"....wow."

Jax opened his eyes, and flexed his hands.

My head's not out of the clouds yet, but this is a good start.

He clenched his fist, and felt the power between his fingers.

 "I think we did it," Jax said, standing up. "Thank you very much, Lady Alicia."

Alicia, breathing hard, laughed and told him that he was a genius.

"Trillian failed about twenty times because he couldn't handle the pain, and even Arthur had to try twice," she explained. "And yours is the first one I've seen that's purple, not to mention the massive shockwave."

"Oh."

It's purple because I'm a Dark Sovereign, a human who gained the powers of a Sovereign, with the powers of necromancy and summoning. And the shockwave is probably because my past prowess.

"Oh yeah, and also, Jax," Alicia added. "Trillian returns in four days. You should get ready."

"Oh yeah."

...it's time to see whether I will gain an ally or the Gilsends will lose a son.