Enigma of Sin

That night, Kayn approached Est and Horace and asked if it would be okay if he and Lara stayed with them for a while longer after winter. First and foremost, he felt it would be best if Lara was taken completely off breast milk at the right time, and lately she hadn't been adjusting to mushed foods well.

Second, he wanted to understand his new condition better as well as practice with the Mana Thread Arts he had read about. The martial forms were just movements to naturally evoke the void element within one's body and was used as a method to detect if someone was compatible with the Tethers.

The versatility of their use after one had somewhat mastered the Mana Thread Arts was practically limitless from what Kayn could tell. All three previous users would normally only use them in times of battle, but as the first wore them almost all the time, he had used Mana Threads even for his own leisure.

As Kayn didn't have a weapon anymore aside from using purely magic spells, he wanted to get used to using Mana Threads in combat. While he could just move around while casting spells, he figured it would be better to have more versatility to his combat and he didn't want to restrict himself.

Lastly, his mental state still wasn't great. During the last few months, even while he was training, thinking of his family would bring a deep sorrow upon his mind. He had even noticed that as time was passing, his sorrow was being replaced with anger and rage.

After recalling what he heard when he had met with the second being, he learned that he was more prone to being angry than any other emotions. Luckily, the being had mentioned that it would restrain the underlying works from happening and suppress the rage that came from Wrath as much as possible without disturbing the balance, whatever that meant.

He could only be thankful that his rage didn't take over whenever he started feeling that way as he was afraid of losing control and harming the family who took care of himself and his sister.

Kayn ended up deciding on a departure date sometime after his sister's birthday and near the start of summer. This would bring higher temperatures up north where they currently were and would allow for easier travel. Plus, this would give him a few months to concentrate on making improvements and preparing himself for travel with his sister.

Of course, Kayn assured them he would do whatever work they asked of him as payment for allowing them to stay longer. Both agreed almost immediately, and while Est mentioned he didn't have to do anything other than recovering, Horace was more than happy to have another hand to help prepare and plant the fields.

…

The following months vanished in the blink of an eye. He was busy every day with various tasks and his own training. Every day that passed provided Kayn with valuable experience and observations for his new Demonic Dragon Heart as well as practice with the Tethers of the Void.

He wasn't sure he could even call the Tethers an item anymore, as even after so long he made no progress with separating them from his arms. However, he had stopped caring too much at this point.

He spent the first week after reading the manual watching his Demonic Dragon Heart and mana movements very carefully.

When nothing out of the ordinary occurred and he didn't notice any strange movements of mana towards his arms or any draining from his body or core, he only glanced at it occasionally afterwards just in case.

What Kayn didn't know and would probably never learn, was the fact that the Tethers didn't fuse with just his arms, they only changed the visuals of his arms as they adopted the scars to the flow of their mana.

In reality, the Tethers had become part of him in a very similar manner to how he fused his heart and mana core originally. They even made slight adjustments to his Demonic Dragon Heart, but as he hadn't had enough time to fully examine it in depth before the Tethers fused with him, he hadn't noticed the difference.

This was yet another boon Kayn didn't realize as the Tethers' fusion with his Demonic Dragon Heart had actually boosted the output efficiency. Unfortunately for Kayn, he wouldn't be able to realize this for a long time to come.

During these last few months, Kayn had both learned a lot and experimented a lot. His days were mainly composed of the following routine:

He would wake up in the morning and go for a run regardless of the weather. After the run he would practice his martial forms while paying close attention to everything he felt in order to better utilize Mana Threads.

He would then return to his room, clean himself off, and cook breakfast for everyone. Most of the time after he finished cooking breakfast, Lara would be awake, so he would normally hold her as he ate.

Usually, he would help out around the farm or learn more about how to take care of his sister from Est until lunchtime. After lunch he normally disappeared deep into the Great Forest, traveling to the north to find rune beasts.

While he was out of sight and far enough away to not cause a ruckus for the couple, he would practice using his wings while even incorporating them into his fighting style. His favorite part of this was practice was using the Mana Threads he could create after his fusion with the Tethers.

Mana Threads became his new go to spell while fighting as he could achieve almost everything he wanted to with them. He could even send other elements along the threads he created, of which he mostly utilized lightning and fire.

He could weave one thread per finger into existence and wrap them around anything. The threads wouldn't budge no matter how hard something tried to break them, or he could simply will them to vanish. Most of his time was spent experimenting with the Tethers while he was out and about.

On occasion he would bring back a regular deer or boar that he would hunt on his way back, just to bring fresh meat for the family. He learned that he needed to eat quite a bit after he created his Demonic Dragon Heart, but most of what he ate was rune beasts he slayed and cooked on the spot.

During the night he would study his grimoires, write in a new one, or just relax as he entertained his sister until she fell asleep. After tucking her into her crib, he picked up the habit of sitting in a lotus position and proceeding to meditate while taking in deep breaths. This time was utilized to ruminate on the discoveries he made and at the same time he was actively expanding his core.

Eating rune beast meat didn't help expand his core now that he had fused it. However, it did serve to send more mana and nourishment to his tissues, and he could feel his body becoming stronger and more refined by the day.

Kayn discovered that eating the core of a rune beast if he found one would help much more than it previously did, but he was a bit worried about the consequences or possible diminished returns later on if he utilized this method too much. Thus, it was put on the back burner until he actually needed it.

After examining all of the notes on cores and their stages he had previously made, he was able to roughly estimate the mana capacity he would need before he could classify his Demonic Dragon Heart as a stage 4 core. He also subtly assumed that his core would gain another cloud color once he achieved the 4th stage.

By his estimate, he would reach it within another few months if he kept up his current training schedule. While Kayn couldn't help but think this was slow, if the rest of the world knew his thoughts, they would probably strangle him.

Obtaining a stage 4 core before the age of 20 wasn't possible. Under normal circumstances, those who could achieve a stage 2 core before 20 were treated at prodigies of their generation, a category that Kinzie fell into.

While Kayn hadn't come across any sort of clock yet, he guessed that he was staying awake until around 1 or 2 in the morning every night and would wake up around 5. He didn't exactly need to sleep every day or even every week anymore, but it helped to reset his mind for the next day. Plus, it was good for his mental health.

He knew he would never be able to get over his family's death, and he didn't want to. But he did want to channel those emotions into more healthy things like taking care of Lara.

And like that, Kayn turned 17, Lara turned one, and summer was almost upon them. It was finally approaching the time that the brother-sister duo would depart towards Palatine.