Chapter 256 Mana Heart

When Nial visualized Hana's face, he was shocked. She was extremely beautiful. Her face was flawless, highlighted by her big eyes, and long eyelashes and her skin looked soft and supple like that of a newborn baby.

Hana's head was small, and long silky hair fluttered over her face, partially covering her eyes. Yet, the moment Nial visualized her eyes, his heart began to beat wildly.

'I feel like she is pulling me in with her spell...' Nial thought for a moment, just for this feeling to disappear in an instant.

It was as if this bewitching sensation had never existed. However, Nial knew that this was not true. After all, everyone's attention was directed to Hana, the moment her veil caught fire.

The runes on the veil had been deactivated due to the veil's natural defensive mechanism, and everything Hana wanted to hide was about to be exposed.

That was what it looked like, at least. Hana panicked for a moment and attempted to hide her face, but her powerful mana currents and everything she had been painstakingly hiding from others were already released by her accidentally.

At this moment, Nial stored the Dragonflame spear in his spatial ring before he held both of his hands out.

"If you have another veil, put it on," Nial suggested calmly, while dark energy shot out of his arms and hands, engulfing Hana tightly.

She flinched when she sensed the cold energy shrouding her, but even before Nial continued to speak, Hana understood that her mana currents were incapable of squeezing through the dense dark energy.

"Don't fight it, just change your veil," Nial repeated himself again in the same calm tone. This reassured Hana that everything would be fine.

'As long as I don't try to fight against this dark energy, my mana cannot pierce through it...calm down Hana, nothing happened. Nial is there to help you, Hana. Just calm down!!' She nearly screamed at herself in her thoughts, but it was extremely helpful and allowed her to return to her calm and composed self.

Despite being cold, dark, and somewhat eerie, the energy that shrouded her gave Hana the warmth she needed. Her hands moved quickly, and a spare veil appeared in her hand which she replaced with the veil that had begun to burn.

Nial's dark energy had easily extinguished the flames, and Hana could change the veil without a problem. In less than half a minute, the spare veil covered her face, and all the necessary runes were activated.

The moment Nial noticed that he was not able to sense her mana fluctuations properly anymore, he retracted his dark energy. Unable to visualize her and to perceive a lot from her, Nial knew that the spare veil was now in place.

"Will you be fine?" Nial asked in genuine concern.

'I figured out what her special traits are. Wasn't that supposed to be her secret? Why do I feel so bad all of a sudden...?' He wondered.

It may have been his fault for asking her to spar with him but it was not as if Hana couldn't reject his challenge. Thus, Nial scrapped his earlier thought, telling himself that it was an accident.

"I guess?" Hana could only reply, feeling hesitant as she took a look around. She was still eyed by many, but most powerful Originals were more confused than bewitched by her.

"Yeah, I will be fine." She said with more confidence after seeing that nobody had been affected by her weird condition a lot. Her mana fluctuations had only been released for a moment because Nial had acted quickly enough.

Furthermore, she didn't come in touch with anyone, which made things much easier than it had been with the few Elves from before.

But even if Hana believed that she would be fine, her eyes involuntarily turned to Nial.

"Why were you not affected?" Curiosity got the better of her and she blurted out the question that had been on her mind for a while. Under normal circumstances, she was supposed to hide her special trait, even if someone were to find it out about the bewitching mana fluctuations.

As long as they didn't know what exactly it was, nobody could find a way to counter it properly, after all.

"Was I supposed to be affected?" Nial countered in return. He smiled playfully before the right corner of his mouth curled upward.

With a single step, he advanced toward Hana and ended up only centimeters away from her.

"Two hearts, one allowing you to stay alive, and the other one giving your mana life," Nial whispered in a low voice so that only Hana would hear and understand him.

She flinched and was about to take a step back.

However, she nearly stumbled and fell because her entire attention had been on Nial's face and the words he had spoken.

At that moment, Nial's hand reached out to her. He held her arm, pulled her closer, and prevented Hana from falling to the ground.

"You never created a mana core, did you?" Nial asked his voice low but overflowing with excitement. He didn't know when it was but he started to smile brightly.

Hana flinched and she wanted to squirm out of his grasp to escape him. But that seemed impossible. Nial wasn't even holding her tightly, yet, Hana was incapable of escaping his grasp as the eyes behind her veil stared deep into his milky, lifeless eyes.

"N-No..., I awoke my Origin like this..." Hana answered with a stutter.

She was not sure why, but it was impossible for her to escape Nial. Her physical strength was higher, and he didn't even try to hold her in place. Despite that, Hana felt as if she was the one, who had been bewitched at this moment.

However, that was impossible.

"I wish I could ask you more about your Mana heart, but it looks like your master is coming, and she is furious." Nial's smile turned even broader when he said this.

Hana began to blush involuntarily, but she didn't move away from Nial. Instead, she felt that it was necessary for her to find out why Nial was immune to her second special trait!

It was a fact that she had never awoken a mana core but a Mana heart. Her Mana heart worked just like a normal human heart, with the sole difference that mana was circulated through her mana veins instead of human blood circulated through ordinary veins.

The Mana Heart strengthened her mana, refined and purified it. Even if Hana didn't own an Innate ability, her Mana heart was much stronger than most Innate abilities.

It was possible for her to passively absorb mana, to annex it in an instant, and her Mana heart was able to store more mana than ordinary Mana cores!

And as if that was not enough, her Mana Heart's effects continued to grow. There was a limitation to the Mana heart's growth but it would take a long time until it would have reached maturity.

Thus, as long as she worked hard, her rank would increase rapidly!

However, despite owning such a powerful special trait, Hana never revealed herself to anyone. Her real identity was unknown to the public.

Nobody knew her in person and the most others knew was that she was Kirlia's disciple, but that was only obvious.

After all, she had been terminally ill until a bit less than two years ago. After she awoke her Origin, it took her several months to recuperate from her terminal illness, and only afterward was it possible for her to start advancing in the path of a genuine Original!

Unfortunately, there had been a few complications, and not only a Mana heart was awoken when Hana awakened her origin.

There was something else, something that changed her entire life once again. If she had wished to make friends and to have fun with them, this dream was shattered into countless pieces the moment her second special trait manifested.

Nial had sensed it from all the people in the surrounding area. There was not a single individual, who was completely immune to the faint, altered mana fluctuations Hana had accidentally released upon panicking when her veil had caught fire.

'A Mana Heart, and some sort of 'Charming' trait.' Nial concluded. Her Charm was released naturally through her mana was strengthened and in turn amplified her Charm.

Thus, if she was not able to conceal her mana under all circumstances, it would be impossible for her to live in any kind of society. After all, Nial could tell how potent her Charm was.

'But why am I not affected then? Is it the Odyssey's seed natural protection? It could also have to do with the Ankh...' He thought, without being able to tell the truth.

Nial wanted to find out more, but even before he could say anything else, he was forced to let go of Hana.

Darkness shrouded his feet and reinforced them as he used a large amount of mana to jump backward.

The ground below him cracked but that was nothing in comparison to the huge greatsword that cleaved down at the position Nial had been standing a fraction of a second earlier.

The crimson-colored greatsword cut deeply into the ground before a cobweb-like pattern spread out on the surface as the crimson greatsword's [Second Impact] rune was activated.

"Did you plan on killing me?! Are you insane, woman?" Nial blurted out the moment he landed on the ground.

He could clearly feel Kirlia Maverick's killing intent. However, there was something that confused Nial.

'The killing intent might also be directed at me but that's not all. Her killing intent is aimed at everyone!'

"Shut up, goner." Kirlia hissed in rage, her head flicking to him.

If Nial were to bother to visualize her, he would understand that her eyes were not only filled with anger, and killing intent but also traces of fear and worry.

She worried that something happened to Hana because her mana fluctuations had been released for a moment.

When her veil had deactivated itself, Kirlia got a notification and she rushed over as quickly as possible. Fortunately, it seemed as if it was a false alarm, but the fact that Nial had been holding her disciple had worried her a lot.

She feared that something might happen to Hana the moment her secrets would get exposed. 'Even the Elves should be interested in something with as much talent as she has. I guess...' Kirlia merely thought.

"Let's go back, Master... I don't want to attract too much attention..." Hana said all of a sudden. She knew that her master wanted the best for her. However, Kirlia's current behavior would unnecessarily attract suspicion.

'Master, you're going overboard. If you continue like this, everyone will start to get suspicious!' Hana wanted to scream out.

However, she didn't say anything else and allowed her master to calm down for a moment.

The killing intent around Kirlia was retracted, her expression changed, and she turned back to her disciple.

"Let's go back then." Kirlia's reply was quiet, it almost looked like she had calmed down.

But everyone could tell that deep down, Kirlia was just forcing herself to stay calm so that her disciple wouldn't be disappointed in her.

They left the small training grounds without saying another word. Nial could only smile weirdly at this. Meanwhile, Mathias and Miranda approached him. Both felt like asking some questions but they could see the weird expression on Nial's face.

Thus, they didn't bother him for the time being.

Many Originals and Elves in the surroundings were also confused. In the last few seconds, they had regained their senses. However, they were actually not sure what happened in the time before, between the time the veiled woman's veil caught fire and when her face was covered with a new veil.

Everything in-between that period was a little hazy, and only those with stronger willpower were able to recall what happened.

While a small commotion was caused by this rather trivial incident, Hana was deep in thoughts, confused by who Nial was to be immune to her Charm.

This was a good sign, but the unknown was also a little bit frightening.

"Wait?!" Kirlia suddenly exclaimed. Her eyes widened in shock as she turned to Hana.

"Am I stupid, or was it possible for Nial, this little jerk, to keep his calm even after he touched you??"

Only now did she recall with a glaring clarity to have seen Nial holding Hana's arm. She didn't care why he was holding her, but it enraged her nonetheless.

'This little bastard, I have to cut his arm off....'