Chapter 49 - Lost humanity

Hati looked at his hand with fascination; after all, this was still something entirely new for him despite having had access to abilities for most of his life. His hand felt warm and snug as if it was being hugged by a loved one.

"Y- You, how did you do that so fast?" Sif stammered from the side. Hati didn't really understand why she seemed so shocked, so he simply shrugged and said, "Well, as you said, it was mostly instinct."

Still inspecting his hand, he continued, "I reached out to my heart focal and immediately felt something calling to me. I reached out for it and suddenly felt like I had all this power in my hands, so I recalled the corrosive hand technique, and here we are."

Sif sighed in defeat, "It seems you have some kind of  monstrous talent; I was much slower than you." Then she smiled proudly, "But this is fine, too!" She stuck out her chest in pride, "Look at my monstrously talented son!"

Hati quickly got swept up in her excitement, feeling ready to show all of Asgard his skills as he also stuck out his chest and laughed proudly with his mother.

Unfortunately, reality came crashing down in the form of two hands smacking both of them on the back of their heads, accompanied by the stern voice of Belpegor, "Get a grip, you two." 

The smack broke Hati's concentration, undoing the corrosive hand technique and causing the blood to fall onto the bed. Hati looked at his now normal hand with sadness, thinking, 'I'll have to improve my ability to keep techniques going no matter the circumstances.'

As Sif and Hati rubbed their heads with aggrieved expressions, Belphegor, having just arrived after fully recovering, sat down on the bed with the mother-son pair.

He said, "Before you two start celebrating the birth of a once-in-a-million-year genius, I think we should consider the possibility that your ease of control, Hati, comes from that pale glow around your blood element."

Hati looked curiously at his father, "How do you mean? And what exactly happened during my awakening?"

At his son's request, Belphegor started telling them both about what happened in Hati's heart focal. After he was done, he finished by saying, 

"I do think Hati is exceptionally talented as well, probably more so than both Sif and me, but it would be foolish to discount the possibility that this non-elemental element has something to do with it. 

After all, it is clearly closely connected to Hati in some way if it showed up in his heart focal without being an actual element."

His story caused Hati and Sif to look thoughtful before Hati commented with a smirk, "Well, whatever it is, and I really have no idea, we're gonna have to think of a better name than 'non-elemental element'." 

He seemed to think for a moment before continuing, "How about essence? We'll call my blood element essence-infused blood element." He then shrugged, "As for what this essence did to my soul and spirit core, we'll find out with time. Either way, it seems to be beneficial so far."

Sif and Belphegor both nodded while Sif said, "Sure, essence it is then. Since we're assuming that this essence is what makes the blood element easier for you to control, let's test if it also makes it more powerful. Can you use the corrosive hand technique again?"

Hati nodded and stuck out his hand before conjuring the same technique again; as he did so, Sif did the same and cast her own corrosive hand technique while suppressing its power to the mortal level.

After they both had their corrosive hand techniques out, all three of them took a closer look to see if they could find any differences. 

However, they fully expected Belphegor to be the only one capable of noticing anything with his soul sense and higher elemental aptitude through his Einherjar level.

After a moment, Sif simply shrugged, "I can't see anything strange about it apart from the pale glow."

On the other hand, Belphegor was different, but not by much: " I can only tell that there is something different about it besides the glow, but I can't tell what it is. I get the same feeling as I got when I looked at the original essence in your heart focal.

It feels like something I recognise on an instinctual level without fully realising what it is. But I do have a theory: I think this essence is related to the levels above the sixth revolution."

While Hati had still not lived in this world long enough to appreciate what Belphegor was saying, Sif was not the same. She looked at her husband in shock and said, "There's still a level above the sixth revolution?!"

Belphegor nodded, "Well, that was the prevailing theory back when I still walked the six worlds. There was no actual evidence of it, only a lot of theories.

The only reason I think this essence might have something to do with it is because that would explain why I seem to recognise it on an instinctual level.

Besides, considering all the things that happened to Hati, I would be surprised if that was all orchestrated by a mere sixth-revolution individual. At least, I certainly can't forcefully reincarnate someone, let alone make two such people appear in the same place. 

And then there was that disembodied voice you spoke with, Hati. I can't do that either, and neither have I heard of anyone being able to do these things, sixth-revolution or otherwise.

So if it were something above the sixth revolution that did all that, then it would stand to reason that they might leave some of this essence with Hati, either by accident or design, to allow him to reach above the sixth revolution in the future."

Hati nodded, "That seems reasonable; the only problem I see with your theory is that the disembodied voice seemed to have no idea about the essence. 

Of course, it could have lied, or it could have been an accident, as you said, but I'm not sure why they would lie, nor would I assume someone that powerful would make a mistake like that. I think there is still more going on here."

Sif decided to interrupt their discussion, "Well, whatever it is, we probably won't figure it out by talking about it here. For now, it appears to be a boon, which is a good thing. 

The disembodied voice said you two will talk again when your soul core is formed. You can ask it about the essence, then. I suggest we get to the topic of Hati's bloodline, as it seems that there was another gift left with Hati by whoever did all this."

Hati sighed and nodded, "You're right, mom. We won't get any further by discussing it. Still, I hate being in the dark, and I would have preferred to know some more before talking with that voice again.

But yes, let's get to my bloodline. Can you both tell me what happened to me? Setting aside the added power, I don't really feel like myself."

After he had gotten a little more used to the new power in his body, he started feeling more and more as if his body was somehow radically different, as if he had stepped into a new skin. He also felt like something was holding part of him back somehow.

Belphegor nodded as he rubbed his chin, "That's probably because your dominant bloodline is not exactly human anymore."

Hati raised an eyebrow as he questioned, "Not exactly? What does that mean?"

"It means that your three bloodlines now exist in exactly equal measure. Something that would be almost impossible to be born naturally, and I've never heard of anyone successfully pulling it off artificially, either.

Changing your fundamental make-up is not easy, after all, and it is something entirely different from simply adding or removing a non-fundamental bloodline. We succeeded only because we had several advantages, and you had yet to finish your awakening."

Hearing this, Hati frowned. Hearing you have suddenly changed race entirely was a disturbing thought. Not that he was particularly concerned about his humanity. After all, why would he? 

All that mattered was taking control of his own life and keeping his loved ones safe. If he had to become some kind of Frankenstein-like monster constructed from multiple different species, then so be it. 

He also wondered for a second how bloodlines related to DNA since his entire genetic makeup seemed to have gone through the blender. But since he was never any kind of biologist, he quickly dropped the thought.

Still, he wanted to know more, "Okay, so can I at least assume those three bloodlines are still human, snow demon and calamity wolf? And if so, where did the calamity wolf come from?"

Belphegor smirked slightly at Hati's reaction, "You don't seem particularly concerned about losing your humanity."