A Rival?

For the next month, mother trained us for the upcoming rebellion. Anais would have completed her preparations and could be here anytime. So, our preparation was in full swing. One day, mother even asked us about the rebellion.

"Do you want me to clear up the Vangan Empire royal family and the remnants of the Highland Origin Sect? Wouldn't it be easy that way?"

Alice was excited at the proposal and wanted to accept it immediately, but I knew that it was a sort of test by mother, as she had a sly smile while looking at Alice's eager face. I replied to her resolutely.

"No. It is our fight, and we will see it through to the end."

My sister also understood the intention behind mother's question and agreed with me.

"Though I would like you to make all our problems vanish, it will not be suitable for our growth. And so this time, we will fight on our own."

Seeing our determination, mother smiled in satisfaction and ruffled our hair.

"Good. You should fight your battles on your own strength. But remember to not overdo it, as your mother will always be there when you need help. I will also be present during our upcoming fight against the empire, so you should prepare well and show me your growth in the fight."

With her encouraging words, we continued our training.

In that month, except for sparring, I spent time with my mother for learning arrays. Due to this, there was no time left to spend with Alice. Resulting in her giving me a stinky eye. I left sweet-talking and consoling Alice to the future me and focused on my mother's teachings.

Although I had learnt a few formations and arrays from her, I never got to learn the basics properly. So, I couldn't do anything else except replicating and slightly modifying the formations taught before.

Arrays and formations are basically the same and are generally used interchangeably. But for proper nomenclature, the difference between the two is the usage of energy to activate them. The arrays could be triggered solely by the strength of a cultivator. Whereas for the activation of formation, either many cultivators are required or the energy present in the surroundings is utilised by the manipulation of a cultivator.

As I was more interested in arrays, my mother taught me about them in-depth and left the many details about the formations without any mention. According to her.

"The only thing one needs to know about the formation is that they have a similar structure to the arrays. And once one learns about the arrays, although he cannot make formations, he can understand them and find the formation's core. 

After destroying the core, the formation stops working. You only need to learn how to destroy the core and nothing else, as you won't be making formations."

For the teachings of arrays, she took me to her room. Although her room was without much furniture, many intricate inscriptions covered the whole room. These inscriptions had a very artistic vibe and depicted many beautiful sceneries. 

Whenever I had entered her room before, I was mesmerised by these inscriptions' beauty. I had always thought that these were the product of one of her hobbies, but my preconceptions were shattered that day.

After entering her room, my mother went to the centre of the room, where a beautiful lotus was inscribed on the floor. And she injected a small amount of stellar energy at the centre of the flower. The flower inscription absorbed the energy, and then a shocking change occurred.

The whole room started glowing, starting from the lotus. The various inscriptions came to life, and the entire room was filled with projections of many colourful sceneries. There was a grassland with grasses swaying in the wind, a volcano erupting magma, a waterfall with water cascading down into a sinkhole and many more.

I tried to touch the projection of grassland and found the skin on my hand being sheared away by the wind. I immediately pulled my hand back and saw the absence of flesh on my fingers, leaving only the bones.

Mother took my hand inside her palms and gently healed my damaged fingers. She looked at me and said, with an enigmatic expression etched on her face.

"Many things in the world are not always as they look from the outside. You should remember it well."

I could not discern anything from her words and face except from her sad eyes. It seemed there was something bothering her. I tried to activate my ability of 'Color Feel' but couldn't look into her. The only thing I knew was that I should comfort her, and so I did.

I put my other hand on hers and held her firmly. With a confident smile, I said.

"I understand, mom. But you need not worry, as nothing could separate me from you."

Her eyes brightened at my words, and she patted my head with a smile. She then started explaining to me about the arrays.

"Most people think that every array has a fixed structure and that if one changes the structure, then the array will not work. But it is not necessarily true.

There are three parts to an array: The Alpha Rune, the Beta Rune and the Gamma Rune.

The Alpha Rune is the core where the energy is inserted and distributed to the other parts of the array. The grade of the Alpha Rune differs depending on the output as well as the complexity of the array.

The Beta and Gamma Runes are the ones giving the specific property to the array. Every property corresponds to a different Beta or Gamma Rune. Also, the different combination of property with the runes results in different overall characteristics of the array.

For example: An array on a metal block with Beta for Speed and Gamma for Wind will result in the block moving at the wind speed after injecting stellar energy into the array without any need to throw the block. But the same block with an array corresponding to Beta for Wind and Gamma for Speed will result in reduced air drag. Depending on the strength of the throw, it can exceed the speed of wind.

With the various combinations of Beta and Gamma runes of different attributes, it is possible to have two arrays of different structures with the same overall effect."

Mother also gave a demonstration for the very example. In the first case, it never exceeded the wind speed after injecting my energy into the block, even if I threw it with my full strength. But for the second case, the more force I applied, the faster it flew. And it was much faster than a box without any array.

After the demonstration, mother pointed at the arrays inscribed throughout the room and said.

"There is a final part of an array called Omega Rune. It camouflages the actual array under another array. In here I have used the Omega Runes to project these sceneries."

The new world of arrays presented by my mother piqued my interest a little too much. 

I spent all my time except the sparring sessions with my mother to learn about the arrays. Alice was getting grumpier with each passing day as I had stopped spending time with her altogether. But mother was happy as I didn't spend much time with her after getting older, and now I was almost glued together with her.

But after the arrival of certain someone, I had to reluctantly stop myself from getting engrossed in the study of arrays.

When I was in my room doing some experiments with the runes on my own, Alice barged into my room. She huffed in anger and stated.

"Stop doing whatever you are doing and come with me!"

I wanted to continue my experiments, but seeing the wrathful expression of Alice, I decided to give it a break and spend some time with her. It was the time to sweet-talk with her and accept all her requests. I approached her and held her hands.

She tried to pull her hand back, but I tightened my grasp. She opened her mouth to complain, but I covered it with a kiss instead. She protested by hitting me with her fists at first but gave in to my demands after a while and let me kiss her.

After kissing for a long while, we were both left in a state of panting mess. Her eyes were moist and blurry. Her cheeks had a rosy tint due to her arousal. Seeing her in such a state, the craving I hadn't felt for a whole month erupted at once. I scolded my past self for ignoring such a beautiful sight only to spend time with those arrays. 

But before I could go in for another kiss, I found my mother standing at my open door. She looked at us, embracing each other and said in a tone with a bit of exasperation mixed with amusement.

"Alice, I told you to bring your brother to the reception hall. Why are you taking so long? Are you afraid that your rival will take your brother away from you?"

Alice's mood suddenly turned sour. She first looked at me with an accusing gaze. She fixed her crumpled dress and, started walking in the direction of mother and declared.

"She is not my rival. Even if this dummy brother of mine didn't spend time with me for the whole month, he is still mine. No one can take him away from me."

Mother looked at the possessive Alice with amusement, then looked at me and said.

"Your friend Anais is here along with Elfie and Seline. Come with us. They are in the parlour and have been waiting for nearly half an hour."