Chapter 56 - Checking his soul

With Belphegor's status as a sixth-revolution Einherjar, he could have inspected Hati's soul before this to check on the sin shards. But they had decided against that because of the inherent dangers of interacting with a soul not housed in a core.

After all, if Belphegor even breathed too hard, he would have wiped Hati's soul out, but with the soul core, he would at least have to cough for that to happen. This seemed like an unnecessary risk for something that didn't need to be done immediately.

Hati seemed to think for a moment before suggesting, "What if the essence came from this moon inside my soul in the first place? Perhaps the essence merging with the soul core was just to prepare it so that the actual source could move into the core together with my soul."

Belphegor nodded with appreciation, "That's not a bad suggestion. In fact, the essence's pale light does seem similar to moonlight. But then, was the essence's behaviour in causing your elemental dissonance also intended? 

It's not improbable that they would do that in order to give you another advantage by strengthening your heart focal. But how did they intend for this to be resolved?

Did they know I would be your father before you were even born in this world, or was the elemental dissonance supposed to solve itself, but only after the heart focal had strengthened even more? 

Did we ruin one of their plans by solving the issue too soon? And if so, is that a good thing or a bad thing?

What about the changes to your various elements that now all have the same pale glow? Were those intended or a consequence of how we solved the elemental dissonance?"

Hati could only shake his head at his father's many questions, "I have no idea, either. There are still many more questions than answers about this whole thing. Although, I am now relatively sure that the disembodied voice has nothing to do with the essence."

Belphegor looked surprised at this, "Why do you think so?"

Hati shrugged, "Because it appeared again when I formed my soul core. We actually had a conversation for a while, allowing me to learn some things. I'm still not sure how much I can trust this person, but for now, I'm working from the assumption that they told the truth.

I also discovered there is a good chance this essence is protecting my soul, as that person was still unable to fully project themselves on my soul."

This caused Belphegor to frown, "That's good to hear, assuming it is true. But you sound like you are unwilling to tell me what you discussed with this person."

Hati looked a little apologetic, "I suppose I am for now… To be honest, some of the implications of this conversation are a little heavy, and I could use some time to sort out my own thoughts. I will talk to both you and Mother about this before I head back to the Fenrir clan in a year, alright?"

Belphegor looked thoughtfully at his son for a moment before he nodded sternly, "That's fair. But never fully trust this person or do anything they want before you discuss it with Sif and me, understood?" 

Naturally, Hati was a little unhappy with being ordered around, but he understood his father was just telling him to be careful, so he nodded in response.

Seeing Hati's gesture, Belphegor continued, "Good, then let me quickly do what I came here for."

Belphegor held up one hand, and a small mass of very dark purple energy appeared above it. Hati wondered what element this was but could not determine anything except that it didn't seem dark enough to be the element of darkness. 

The mass of energy pulsed for a moment, causing Hati to think something had happened, but he could not feel anything despite the fact this was his own soul core. Not that that was much of a surprise, considering his father's strength.

Belphegor seemed to be content with the result as he nodded with some relief, but then he looked up at the moon above them before the mass of energy was changed into a small rune of the same colour, which then seemed to leave his father's hand.

But before it could get far, the moon released a beam of pale white light that disintegrated the rune; afterwards, it pulsed, and Belphegor disappeared.

Hati was astonished at this course of events and quickly decided to return his senses to the real world.

When he opened his eyes, Sif was frantically looking between him and his father, while Belphegor seemed to clutch his head as he groaned a little.

She almost yelled, "Hati?! Belphi?! What happened?!"

Belphegor stuck up his hand and gripped Sif's shoulder while his other remained clutched to his own head as he said, "I'm fine, I'm fine. That thing's not strong enough to actually harm me; I just have a little headache."

This barely calmed Sif down as her head swivelled between her husband and son, "What thing?! Is Hati alright?!"

Belphegor released his head, smiled and nodded, "As far as I can tell, he is fine. I scanned every inch of his soul core and couldn't find anything resembling a slave seal. So, for now, he should be safe from being controlled. In fact, it seems like this essence may be protecting his soul from exactly such a fate."

This caused Sif to release a sigh of relief as she immediately went to hug her son, "Good, good. I'm glad the essence didn't seem to have done anything bad. What did you mean with protecting his soul, though? Is that what caused your headache?"

At those words, Hati and his father started to recount everything they noticed and talked about while inside his soul. When they were done, Belphegor explained his actions at the end.

"Since Hati mentioned that the essence might be protecting his soul, I decided to test it out by trying to mark it. Nothing dangerous, just a tracking mark. But that moon's reaction was a little exaggerated as it immediately destroyed the mark and kicked me out.

I imagine I was only able to even enter Hati's soul because he didn't try to resist."

Luna looked intrigued and curious. She asked, almost giddy with anticipation at witnessing an actual moon inside his soul, "Do you mind if I take a look aswell?"

Of course, Hati wouldn't reject such a request from his mother, so a few minutes later, she, too, had taken a look inside his soul core. When her eyes opened again, they were shining. "Truly a beautiful sight.", she said with no small amount of fascination.

However, upon returning, she noticed a complicated look on Hati's face while her husband looked confused. She quickly asked what was wrong, "Why do I feel like something happened while I was taking a look inside?"

Belphegor shook his head and said, "I have no idea. Hati just started looking a little down, but he won't explain why."

But Hati shook his head, "It's nothing, probably just a coincidence anyway."

After seeing that moon and realising how intricately it seemed to be connected to the things that were happening to him, there was one thing that kept sticking to his brain like a small piece of double-sided tape that just seemed impossible to get rid of.

The thing was that he remembered Luna is Latin for the moon. But surely that's just a coincidence, right?

Hati shook his head, deciding not to think about this for now, quickly changing the topic. "By the way, aren't you two interested in knowing what that headache earlier was about?"

The best way of distracting his parents from one piece of information was by giving them something else. 

Belphegor and Sif were perfectly aware of what he was doing but decided to let it be anyway. Sif said with a sigh, "Fine, I'll bite. What was that about? Usually, the headache stops after the soul transfer is over."

Hati smiled, happy that his parents were willing to let it go, and said, "Forming my soul core seems to have split my mind. 

I think it's an effect from one of my sin shards, although I am unsure which one. Regardless, being able to do two things at once should help with the training."

Sif and Belphegor looked astonished at this news but not particularly surprised; their own shards gave them plenty of strange benefits as well, after all. 

After being told this last piece of news, Sif clapped her hands, "Alright, I think it's time to move on. We have even more unanswered questions right now, although Hati seems to have received some answers, but at least your soul and spirit cores seem to have brought only beneficial changes, so I think we can call this a victory."

Belphegor nodded at this and said, "Agreed. And now that this part is over, it's time to move on to the next part of your training."