Chapter 14 - Integrated elements

After recovering from his shock, Hati quickly got back into his child persona by adorning a star-struck expression with stars glittering in his eyes and then said, "That's amazing, mother! So how strong are you, uncle and great-grandfather?"

Smiling gently, Sif responded, "I am an Ace, which means that I have passed the fourth revolution. I only recently passed it, though, not long before your birth, in fact, so my focal points are still in the lowest ranks. 

Your uncle is an ace just like me, but he's a little older, and he spent most of his time growing in strength while I was travelling, so his focal points are already in the higher ranks.

As for your great-grandfather, he is a master-ranked Einherjar, meaning that he is in the fifth revolution, like all elders of the Fenrir clan. I have no idea about his focal point ranks, however."

Hati nodded and said, "I see." But before he could ask his next question, Sif suddenly seemed to remember something as she continued, "Oh, speaking of master-ranked Einherjar and the elders, something important to know is that fifth-revolution Einherjar can extend their soul outside of their bodies in a spherical shape, we call this soul sense. 

When they do this, they can see and hear anything within that sphere as if they were right next to it. So remember to be careful with what you do when there are master-ranked Einherjar near you." She smirked a little at that last sentence as she glanced playfully at a slightly panicked and red-faced Astrid.

Hati was also starting to panic a little, though not because of anything embarrassing like his mother was clearly thinking, but because the way he acted with Astrid was highly suspicious, and if any elders saw that behaviour, it would only spell trouble for him. 

At the time, he only thought this world had some people with seemingly random abilities, like him and Luna, not 1000+-year-old elders with omnipresence. As he promised himself to consider every possibility in the future, Sif was enjoying the look of embarrassment on Astrid's face and what she thought was embarrassment on Hati's face. 

She decided to put them out of their misery and started giggling while saying, "That is why I always keep a sealing barrier active around the house. They won't be able to spy on us without me knowing. Whatever happened in that room will stay between the two of you."

Sif kept giggling as she saw Astrid and Hati slake sighs of relief, and then she continued, "As long as you are inside the house, you won't have to worry about anyone spying on you. I will always warn you when one of those old farts decides to intrude on our privacy."

Hati, wanting to change the subject, quickly thought of a question that would throw most women off balance, "Mother, according to your explanation earlier, an Ace-ranked Einherjar has a lifespan of  800 years, so how old are you then?"

Sif stopped giggling as she looked at Hati with her mouth agape, then she pinched his nose as she said, "You brat! Didn't your mother ever tell you it's not polite to ask a woman her age?!" In response, Hati simply looked at her with a deadpan expression as she kept shaking his head left to right while pinching his nose. 

A moment later, Sif seemed to realise her mistake as she let go of Hati's nose and coughed a little before saying, "Uh, right. Anyway, let's continue the lesson; I still need to tell you about integrated elements."

Hati looked at her as if he couldn't believe her shamelessness and said, "But mother, you didn't ans-."

"Integrated elements!" Sif quickly yelled to shut her son up. He inwardly rolled his eyes at this, but although he initially asked the question to throw her off balance, he got pretty curious now. 

He also wondered if Einherjar had lower birth rates than normal humans, as he suddenly found it weird that his grandparents had only two children in their likely long lives. Unfortunately, considering his age, he didn't feel like his mother would respond well to that question right now.

Astrid, meanwhile, had long since buried her face in her hands, trying to hide from the embarrassment of the earlier situation. She was surprised to realise she actually panicked more about her master's peculiarity being discovered than about some old pervert spying on her while changing. 

She still couldn't believe this adorable child playing around with his mother was the same domineering man-boy she had met earlier. After calming herself down and hearing Sif continue the lesson, she removed her hands from her face and started listening with interest.

The integrated elements are, as one might have guessed, elements that can be integrated into the three focal points. There are a vast amount of different elements that can be integrated by Einherjars, from basic things like fire or water to more ethereal elements like illusion, light and darkness. 

The utilisation of these elements depends on the Einherjar's understanding of said elements. Generally, it is advised to ensure your elemental understanding keeps up with your Einherjar ranking; otherwise, you will not be able to bring out all the power of your elements. 

Unfortunately for most people, an Einherjar has little choice about what elements they integrate into their heart and spirit core focal, as both depend on a person's bloodline. Generally, a person will have two elements naturally, one for the heart and one for the spirit core. 

More than one heart focal element is unheard of by the Fenrir clan, but some people do have multiple spirit core elements, either through bloodlines, special medicines or extraordinary physiques. However, this usually doesn't exceed two spirit elements and rarely three.

Although there are still some ways to make changes to the spirit core, they are few and far between and certainly not something anyone can find. The heart focal, meanwhile, is even more unchangeable. 

If there are methods of making changes there, they are unknown to the Fenrir clan. This is because the integrated heart focal element, or physical element for short, is used to build and restructure the entire body during every revolution. 

Because of this, this element becomes so intertwined with an Einherjar's whole being that, even if it were possible, changing it would surely force one to restart from the beginning as an Einherjar.

Meanwhile, Integrated soul core elements, or soul elements for short, have an advantage in that they can not only be any element the Einherjar wishes, but an Einherjar can also integrate as many elements into their soul as it can handle. 

The amount of elements the soul core can hold depends on the quality of the soul and varies greatly, but most people can contain at most two soul elements. The disadvantage is that all the soul elements use the same power source, namely, the soul core, and if it runs out of power, then every soul element becomes unusable. 

Obviously, the spirit core would provide new energy, but that would still be limited energy for multiple elements.

Hearing all this, Hati obviously got curious about what his elements were, so he asked his mother, "Mother, do you know what my elements will be?" Smiling at his question, Sif responded, "Well, our Fenrir clan has a Calamity Wolf named Fenrir as our ancestor, meaning we are half-bloods. Since the bloodline element of a Calamity Wolf is lightning, most of our Fenrir clan members end up with lightning as our spirit element. 

Meanwhile, the human part in our lineage is strongly connected to the blood element, so most Fenrir clan members have blood as their physical element. As for you, there's naturally a strong chance you will end up with both of those. 

But since your father's bloodline is also quite powerful,  you will probably have two elements for your spirit core, making you quite special in Asgard, especially because the lightning and blood elements are rare and powerful, even more so for the blood element. 

Your father's bloodline element is a little more mundane but still powerful." Then, she said with a wink, "As for what that element is, let it be a surprise for now."

Hati inwardly rolled his eyes at that but decided not to press the issue. Instead, he asked with shining eyes and excitement in his immature voice, "When can I start, mother?!" Looking at his excitement, Sif started giggling again, "Fu fu fu, aren't you excited to grow stronger? 

Although I applaud the attitude, you'll have to wait a little longer. Only when you are ten will your heart have grown enough to start absorbing spirit energy."

Hati started pouting as he said with a bit of disappointment in his voice, "So I'll have to wait another five years." As he said this, he was thinking with determination, 'I will have to work hard in the future. 

The stronger I get, the better my chances of finding Luna and ensuring we never end up dead again. Who knows if we'll get a third chance? Assuming Luna is included in this second chance…' Shaking his head to clear his depressing thoughts, he glanced at Astrid and continued, 'I should see if I can get my mother to help Astrid in two years.

She can't harm me anyway, and she might be able to help me in the future. But I'll do that later after spending more time training her and getting to know her better. I will never allow myself to be betrayed again.'