Ascendant Path of a Lustful Vampire

Chapter 466 466: Nature Magic and Nature Energy

Revon could still remember returning home on the day that his life was turned upside down.

He tried denying the child not even because he was rambling but rather because he couldn't accept that his transgression had borne a result that would come back to hunt him this way. A test was conducted and it was official; Baby Kaya had Aiesling Blood. She had Revon's blood.

It was on that very day, as he stared at the baby and tried and failed to tune out Lillian's yells, that the entity of pure pain, sadness, and regret was born. Revon wanted to be anywhere but there. It was like his desire to stay back at that Elven Forest got co-opted into something horrible. Because, Revon knew he wasn't wanted there.

He had been told so but if, for some reason, he had kept a torch burning for that life, this baby doused it.

The child, innocent as she looked, her cute pudgy hands opening and closing around air, might have been sent to be a sign of what they had shared. But Revon saw it more as evidence that no part of him was allowed in that world. Otherwise, that note wouldn't have come with a child but would rather have been an invitation for him to return. For him and her Kaya's mother to raise their daughter together.

As things came close to breaking in his home in the following months, Revon had to agree to so much to keep Lillian happy and keep his home intact. More than anything, he didn't want to lose his sons and heirs as well as the support of Lillian's family within the County and he left alone with the baby he couldn't bear the sight of.

It was during all that, that the stifling feeling just kept getting worse.

No matter how much Revon had agreed to in his time of trouble though, his relationship with Lillian was never mended. There was just something wrong with him on a deeper level that he couldn't quite work out.

"Oh, gods!" Revon exclaimed suddenly and doubled over before letting out a scream of pain that was equal parts pitiful and terrifying.

One floor down, Lillian heard the cry while she was making a point to ignore all that was happening above but she couldn't help how the cry shook her heart. For the first time in almost two decades, she felt something for Revon that wasn't anger and hate.

Up on the third floor, Revon cried loudly as tears began to stream down his face. Kyrus and Kaide shared looks while bracing themselves for more emotional attacks but whatever attacks were resulting from Revon's breakdown were directed only inward at him alone.

This was a man in battle with himself and no one currently in the hall understood this as well as Kaya. Oftentimes a person's ability to hate another who has done them no wrong stems from trauma unresolved within their very self.

Did that mean she understood/forgave the malevolent pressure that had made almost two decades of her life so terrible and made her feel so unwanted? Not really.

But for now, she could only focus on helping.

She could have accepted Caius's offer to stay with him at the Von Helsing Manor but had instead chosen to return home even though she had no idea at the time that there could even be a way to get rid of the oppressive aura.

Why? Well, because of what she told Revon earlier;

He didn't get to choose whether she was his daughter or not. He lost that right when he sired her. Illegitimate or not, no one had the right to make her feel unwanted.

If she ever decided to turn away from the Aieslings, it wouldn't be because of some stupid oppressive air but because she had decided herself that she had no use for them.

Even as a child, she had had an inkling of this mentality when she began her 'rebellious' phase of not hiding her slightly pointy ears no matter how they made anyone feel.

Revon cried even harder, the action involving the use of his entire body as he became a bit of a blubbering mess.

With no emotional attack forthcoming, Kyrus and Kaide relaxed and just watched their father with pity mixed with worry.

"Will he be alright?" Kaide asked Kaya.

"Yes," Kaya answered.

"Are you sure?" Kyrus asked as he watched his father nearing what looked like an emotional breakdown.

"He's working through nineteen years of suppressed emotions. Give or take a few months," Kaya said matter-of-factly with a shrug,

"Give him a—"

She stopped suddenly. Her eyes narrowed as there was a change in the energy of the room that instantly put her on alert.

"What is it?" Kaide asked as he and his brother took on battle stances as well.

They weren't as perceptive as Kaya and hadn't sensed the change but the sudden cut off in the middle of Kaya's sentence and her expression were enough to put them on high alert.

"A problem," Kaya answered in a whisper.

The hazy blue aura returned then, pulling out of Revon's body to take the shape of the mask of Malevolent Aura. A voice thrummed out from the mask that sounded a lot like Revon's just pitched down a bit lower to create vibrations that thrummed all over the Hall and this entire section of the Grand Manor's main building.

"Look at you," the mask said to Revon, "Pathetic."

"What?" Revon said as he raised his head.

"You're made to confront your past and you break down and cry?" The mask continued, "Utterly absurd."

"What else should I do?" Revon asked between choking sobs.

"Ah, now you're thinking a bit rationally," the Mask said and chuckled.

"Father, I don't understand much of this but I don't think you should be talking to that Mask," Kaide said then with a frown.

"You stay out of this!" The Mask said and turned its eyeless eyeholes on the brothers to unleash a powerful wave of emotional force.

The two released their Mana but the attack ignored it all. The brothers stepped back but the attack was faster than they could move. Right before it hit though, Arcane scripts appeared on the ground and summoned vines that surrounded them. The vines were shrouded with Nature energy that made it so they could ward off the emotional attacks.

When the Vines unfurled and melted into nothing, the brothers turned their wide, slightly horrified eyes on Kaya who had struck her staff against the ground to channel her magic to cast that spell.

The vines themselves were physical and would have failed against the emotional attack just like her brothers' Mana but once layered with Nature energy, they could actually make contact and smack the attack aside.

Nature Magic and Nature Energy despite being related are actually a bit different from one another;

Nature Magic is like every other Elemental magic—Fire, water, Earth, Wind, Dark, and Light—in the sense that it can utilise Mana to conjure that element in the form of a spell that has physical effects.

Nature Energy however exists naturally and is less tangible. It can be manipulated with the Mana of someone with an affinity with Nature Magic but exists independent of magic itself in places/individuals imbued with the very essence of Nature. Places like the Lochxen Forest were imbued with Nature Energy and were why Kaya had been especially empowered during the Mid-semester Tests.

Because it is independent of one's magic is why Nature Energy can be drawn in from external sources to empower one's weakening or failing Nature Magic. One of Kaya's main issues with exorcising the malevolent pressure was the fact that despite the gardens in the Grand Manor, Nature energy wasn't very abundant.

The only reason she had become emboldened to give it a try anyway was that she became assured that, as a Nature Mage, she herself was a source of Nature energy just as much as any garden or forest. Even if it was generated naturally and couldn't be replenished at will, she had to hope it would be enough.