Chapter 328: The Assumption

Chapter 328: The Assumption

Mid Morning - Mid Winter : Hera's Rest | The Scar

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"Hooh... HYUP!" *wwwooOOOOOOMMMM* Tensing every muscle in my body, my aura, flowing in every direction without exception, was slowly directed upward before forming a column of mana 10 kilometers wide and over 13,000 kilometers tall. *GASP* "HAAH..." Nearly collapsing to my knees under the unbelievable weight of my own aura, I let out a foggy breath. -Holy shit, it's always so much more than I think it is...-

It felt like I was fighting the flow of countless tsunamis rushing in every direction. Like I was redirecting the flow of an entire ocean at once.

"Your aura is really.. something," Hera remarked with awe as she gazed up the unfathomable column of mana. "I thought mine wasn't too much smaller than yours.. but..."

"Hah... Hah..." Laboring for breath, I finally released control of my aura, unleashing a blast of mana that disintegrated the ground around me. *VWOOOOM* "Your aura has what.. an 80 kilometer radius?" Seeing her nod, I continued between breaths of exhaustion. "Mine is about 100 kilometers.. meaning I have just shy of double the volume of yours."

"Hah," A bead of cold sweat formed on her forehead as her gaze settled back on me. "And here I thought our auras were similar..."

*Thump-CRACKLE* The brittle ground seemed to shatter as I slumped down. "Well, it doesn't matter how much I have if I can't control it..." -Even after just holding it for a second, I feel like my head is splitting apart...-

"But you've made so much progress over the last day and a half... you should feel accomplished." Her voice carried a hint of concern as she used her aura to make me lie down. "My techniques can only help so much, and by the looks of things, your mind is still extremely cluttered."

-Right...- Mental clutter. It was a term I had become painfully familiar with over the last couple days.

According to Hera, during a regular dragon's dragon sleep to the demigod stage, their minds begin rewiring and reprogramming themselves to use divinity, essentially attempting to upgrade the mortal mind like updating the wiring of a computer.

It was a process called the divine shift, a long and slow process that took thousands of years and countless near-death experiences, but, unbeknownst to me, I had already started it, even before my dragon sleep. -Looking back.. I'm pretty sure it's the only reason Vidar's sword didn't blow my brains out when he hit me...-

But, while it was a necessary step on the road to ascension, it brought along a unique struggle known as mental clutter.

In short, it was when the body laid out strings of divinity but didn't make use of them right away because of preexisting neural pathways.

During dragon sleeps, the body was supposed to naturally destroy and replace the neural paths as the strings of divinity were laid, like unplugging an old cable and plugging in a new one.

However, because of the sheer amount of divinity I acquired during my last sleep, my body couldn't keep up with its production, leaving my brain a tangled mess of divinity that I now had to 'declutter' manually. -What a pain...-

And I meant that literally.

According to Hera, the only way to clear mental clutter was to strain my mind to the point of destroying neural pathways and forcing my subconscious to switch to 'the new cable'. The issue with that was I couldn't manually destroy the neurons, otherwise the string of divinity wouldn't be 'forcefully reprogrammed' by my subconscious. "It honestly feels like I'm playing with fire..."

Hera's worries seemed to stem from a similar place as well. "Most dragon's typically don't have to reprogram their own minds to such an extent, but I can at least assure you that you won't be able to strain the parts using divinity enough for them to destroy themselves. At most, it'd just rewire itself to something more efficient."

-How convenient,- I wanted to say with sarcasm. "But what if the divinity doesn't get reprogrammed after the neural path is destroyed? Will I just lose whatever knowledge is tied to that pathway?"

Thankfully, Hera immediately shook her head, but it wasn't because my assumption was wrong. "If the destruction is due to strain, the divinity will reprogram itself. You won't lose anything, I promise."

She tried to be reassuring, but I could only sigh. "Haah..." -That pain isn't going to be fun to deal with... But..- "For now, I'll just save it for later..." Glancing at the sun, my time with Hera was running out. "It looks like it's about time for me to head back."

"Hoh?" Hera's curiosity was piqued instantly. "Where to?"

"Valtivar. I brought my family there for a vacation, but we told the public it was a diplomatic visit." Slowly getting back up onto my feet, I gently shook my head back and forth to try and alleviate some of the pain.

I spoke as if it were nothing, but if Hera had a drink in her mouth at that moment, she would have spit it everywhere. "WHAT?!"

-Oh, shit... I forgot to tell her that, didn't I...- "Haha," I let out an awkward chuckle as I glanced toward her. "I guess I forgot to tell you earlier.. I apologize."

Her shock was honestly palpable. "Half.. ancient fenrir?"

As we started quickly reentering the bright blue afternoon atmosphere, I nodded. "Although I only figured it out during my dragon sleep, I am, in more than one way, Nott's reincarnation."

There was a long silence that followed as she looked up toward me with questions ringing behind her eyes. "Do you.. have his memories?"

But I hastily shook my head. While it would have certainly been convenient, I knew even less than Hera about the matters regarding the end of the war.

However, that would change in due time. For now, all I had to do was take one step at a time and jump the hurdles as they came.

But little did I know, a hurdle would find its way to me before I could even realize I needed to jump.

*Fwoosh* *Fwoosh* Coming in to land on Lief's estate, I cut a hole in the roof of my room before descending into it, landing, and quickly patching the hole in one swift motion.

Krystallo, who was sitting over by the bookshelves with Mother and Father, immediately hopped up as I came in. "Brother's back!" But her happy trot came to a screeching halt as I finally landed and set down Hera.

Even Mother was caught off guard. "Welcome back, Va- Huh?" The moment she saw Hera, confusion blasted across her face, but eventually, her expression just turned smug. "Hoho~, to think our Vasilias finally found himself a wife~." Quickly hopping up with her obscene assumption, she lowered her head toward Hera for a moment before matching her gaze. "My name is Zachari Ragnarok. If I may ask, who was given the pleasure?"

Thankfully, Hera wasn't too taken aback by her antics, but rather than directly clearing the misunderstanding, she simply gave a very humble bow. "My name is Hera. Hera Monachikós." The whole room froze in an instant. "It's truly a pleasure to meet you, Zachari."

She spoke very casually, befitting the age difference, but Mother was so drowned in shock that she couldn't even find words to respond.

-I guess that's one way to correct her...- "Mother, Father, Krystallo, please meet Hera." I paused as I overlooked them and saw Father was thankfully finally able to at least withstand my aura without passing out. "And before you ask, yes, she is 'The' Hera Monachikós." I had hoped her name would be enough to clear Mother's insane deduction.

But while only silence followed my voice, I felt like I could smell something burning, and after looking down I saw Krystallo, her gaze aimed at Hera like a laser that could melt diamonds.

-Oh boy... I guess Hera's name wasn't enough to clear Mom's assumption for her...-

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