Seed of the Sovereign

"Beautiful isn't it?" Leon asked standing beside Luke while admiring his handiwork.

Luke just kept silent, stupefied by the scene.

"I found this space node a while ago,"Leon continued. "When I found it, the area was already teeming with trolls. Apparently, a powerful demon passed by and somehow destabilized the space. The trolls moved stealthily, trying to strengthen the bridge between the two worlds and use it for themselves. But with their primitive space anchors, the node only widened just a bit before I came. If I had left them, it would no doubt take years for the any reasonable threat to be able to make it's way through the space node."

'What?' Luke thought.

He looked at the towering trolls impaled on ice spikes. How could these not reasonable threats?

Unless... His uncle was implying something else.

Luke looked up at leon who grinned back at him.

"Yes Luke. Since they were going to be so slow, I did what any reasonable and benevolent person would do. I helped them out." Leon said looking satisfied with himself.

"I helped strengthen the destabilization by putting more powerful space anchors from our end, strengthening the node. With that, their big bad guys could start coming in almost immediately."

"What!? Are you mad!?"Luke blurted out wide eyed.

This was madness, pure and raw insanity. This man didn't have any respect for the rules at all.

If anyone found out about this and reported it to the military, he'd be chased to the end of the earth before been tortured and killed for the highest treason. That was how much anything that looked just a bit like aiding the invaders could get someone.

Even those from the high clans wouldn't be able to avoid the rules.

Not only that, all of humanity had developed a bone deep hatred for the invaders and mostly the demons for their cruel and devilish nature.

If this got out, this man would be hated and despised by all of humanity.

And yet he didn't seem to care one bit.

Luke had read of madmen in his novels and even heard legends about them. But this was the first time he was truly facing one... And his audacity was truly mind-blowing.

Leon just smiled happily.

"Of course I'm not mad. Nothing is going to happen. And nobody can punish me as long as they don't find out." He said shrugging without a care in the world.

"Why are you so sure they wouldn't find out?" Luke asked.

He didn't understand. A space node this big and dangerous would give off large aether waves. Even if the military was incompetent, they should still have been able to pick up the waves... How was it even possible for this place to be kept hidden?

"Don't worry, I have my ways." Leon said with a mysterious smile.

'This is definitely going to impress this little brat' he thought to himself smugly.

Luke was shocked for a while, but then he got over it and just shrugged. The matter had nothing to do with him anyways.

He left the windowside where they both stood to go lay back on his bed. He needed to rest and recover so he could move out as soon as possible.

Watching Luke lay down, Leon sulked. He expected Luke to ask him more questions, giving him more chances to show off. How could this cousin of his be so uninterested?

He shook his head, shifting his mind from that to more important matters.

"So," he said with a hint of bitterness and steeled resolve. "I guess we have to get the hard discussions now."

Luke remained silent for a while before he spoke. "Firstly, you'll need to prove that you're actually my uncle."

Leon's face turned weird. This kid still didn't trust him? But he shook his head sadly. This paranoia might only be the logical thing after what he had gone through.

He went out of the room and came back a few minutes later with an aether memory stone and a plain pebble with the shape of a drop carved into it's side.

He placed the pebble by the side and infused aether into the stone. Immediately, a visual projection of three children came out. The picture depicted an auburn haired girl dragging the cheeks of a boy who looked just like her while behind them, a younger boy stood in their shadow.

"See. That's obviously your mum right? And that's obviously me there." Leon said, purposely skipping over the clear bullying he was recieving.

"Who's that below then?" Luke asked.

"That's your second uncle. But I don't think it's my right to tell you more about him. At least not now." He said mysteriously.

Luke tried to ask what Leon meant but he was shut down repeatedly so he decided to let it be for now.

But still, he spoke.

"Okay?"

"What?" Leon asked and Luke sighed.

"We both know that I won't be satisfied with just that, which is why you brought the pebble, whatever it is. So why aren't you using it?"

Leon opened his mouth but he had no words, so he just brought out the pebble and gave it to Luke.

"This is a blood Sync stone not a pebble." Luke said, extending one of his fingers towards the stone. "When the stone is soaked with the blood of two or more people, if their bloodline is the same or one of their parents bloodlines are the same, an infusion of aether would turn it into a multicoloured gem."

Out of thin air, a small ice needle formed, reaching towards Leon's outstretched finger and piercing it.

A drop of his blood fell on the pebble and he asked Luke to stretch his finger.

Luke did the same as another ice needle extended towards his finger. But then Leon continued.

"If the bloodline isn't the same though, it'll cause a huge explosion. Huge enough to take out this house."

And then he pierced Luke's fingers too fast for him to react.

Luke instantly curled into himself defensively.

But nothing happened. After waiting a few seconds, he opened his eyes only to see the pebble shining a radiant multicoloured light while Leon laughed his guts out.

Luke just looked stupefied. Did this grown uncle of his actually prank him?