Chapter 22: family secrets.

Here take this orb. Hold it in your hand, this will show you how much progress you have made."

"My progression in what dad? "

"Well, son, we are not called soul warriors for nothing. Our soul is the main focus of our strength.

We focus on the soul and awaken the soul world. But before that, we need to measure your soul essence." Dez took the orb from his father and held it in his hand.

"This orb will measure the quantity of your soul essence." This was the first time Dez heard of this.

"Is this orb something new?"

Dez was looking at the orb, it appeared to be made of some sort of glass. The inside was sky blue and the orb had a cold feeling to it.

"No, the orb is an item very well known in the holy continent. Once you start training your will and determination. You will see your soul essence will also grow a little. This is used to keep track of that."

"I have not done any training to temper my will yet, dad." Will training was hellish training to overcome all sorts of fear and mental obstacles. It's always done at the age of 14 when your hormones are working high and you're at your bravest.

"I know that is exactly why we are doing it now, hold this orb and let us see where you stand."

Holding the orb in his hand Dez saw: Soul essence 8.5

"How is it, dad? Is 8.5 is that any good?"

"Sure it is. Most children will be around 5 if it's below 5 it's not worth it to invest resources into but 8.5 is good. When I was your age my soul was at 12 and when I awakened my soul was at 42."

"To become a chosen you will have to have a soul power at a minimum of 21."

"On this continent, it's hard to find chosens but on the Holy continent, you will find a lot of them."

"They are not naturally gifted, but more like created chosen, who consume the wisp of the undead to increase soul essence. A very dangerous resource to get and consume."

thanks to a lot of studies and research we discover that the minimum requirement to awaken a power is to reach a soul essence of 21."

"Everyone needs 15 points of soul essence to awaken. 21 to be chosen.

And then the higher your soul essence the stronger your soul world will be and stronger the ability when you awaken."

"Like my ability, it's quite powerful and unique. I think that the record in soul essence has been 50 points 3 times throughout history. It seems no one has surpassed that yet."

"Does that mean I'll be chosen too?"

Dez was happy to hear that. All that he is learning now are things he never knew were possible.

"You still have a few years before 15. I'm sure you will get there."

"Pass the orb to your sister." After hearing that Alicia, who was also smiling with happiness, stopped. Her face became serious and a little worried.

Dez obediently gave the orb to his sister who was silently listening to the conversation.

After holding the orb in her hand she spoke.

"Soul essence: 19.3"

Those words sounded and the whole hall became silent. A soul essence of 19.3 at the age of 10.

"Nice sis, I guess when you awaken you will need to take care of me." Dez had a happy smile on his face. He was truly happy with how strong his sister was.

"Son, don't be lazy. You need to work hard too." Alicia was having none of that attitude.

"Mom, I was just joking."

"Dez I have something that will help you grow your soul essence, I want you to drink this." Said Emperor Kaihen bringing out a potion.

" Dad, isn't that…?

"This is the soul essence enhancing potion."

This was the potion Dez had given the leaf wolf earlier today.

The potion looked like mist in a bottle, but the moment you open it it will become a transparent liquid like water.

"Son, I want you to pay good attention to what I'm about to tell you."

"Yes, father."

"Son, this will be related to your future so listen carefully."

For you to awaken you need to create a soul world. As your companions grow stronger, they will feedback into your soul and also into your body. Making you stronger."

"You can imagine your soul world as a house full of rooms."

"If you become a chosen one you will get an innate ability.

That will take up a room. Your integrated companion will take a room. Your other contract will take up more room. The stronger they grow, the bigger the room they will need to occupy to live inside your soul world."

"The space in your soul world is limited. And that limit is determined by your soul essence when you build your soul world.

The more essence you have the bigger your world will be when it is created."

"Your soul companion feeds on your soul's energy to grow. And then it feeds its power back into us and we grow."

The stronger the companion the stronger the feedback. This will give us the capability to let our soul world rank up. That is our combat level."

"So how do people stagnate then father?"

"When the circle is broken."

"It's when the feedback is not enough for your soul world to level up and there is no room available for your beast to rank up."

"So your companion can't break through because your world won't be able to hold its power. But the power you get is not enough for your world to rank up."

"Do you want to know why that is?" Dez nodded his head wanting to know more.

"It is because it starts too small.

The soul essence at the beginning was good to awaken but not enough to build a good foundation."

"That is why I worked for years to develop this."

"I want to see you reach the limit of the human body and soul before awakening."

"But won't my sister be a better candidate for this test? She has a soul essence level way above mine."

"Well, Son, that is the other thing I wanted to tell you today."

"You see your sister is not completely your sister."

"She is your half-sister."

"Well, well… well. What can I say dad? I came to realize that she is a little different from everyone in the family except you and me. She looks a lot more like you. Like I always wonder why sis had gold yellow eye colors. No one in the family had those, then she is also a lot stronger than any kid I knew so I did think that there was something suspicious about that. But dad I never thought you would get busy with other women. Do you have a secret mistress?"Dez felt like he needed to take the role of a detective now that the secrets are coming out.

"But don't worry about it, I love my sister for who she is. That doesn't matter to me.

I still think she will benefit a lot from this experiment."

"Dez… watch your words… and let me finish." Emperor Kaihen's face darkened, what was this boy imagining?

"If you don't let me explain you won't understand." Dez sat quietly to hear the full story.

"She is my daughter."

"But…She is not born from a human."

"FATHER!!!"

Dez's emotions were soaring with every word.

"Dez shut up." Said Kaihen raising his voice for the first time.

"Yes, father."

"I created Zenayah"

"I genetically created your sister.

Before starting project soul. I was doing experiments on DNA."

"She has the genes of a few of the most powerful beings in the world.

I actually never thought I would fall in love.

So before that, I had the idea to create my own child. So I collected the DNA of the most powerful beings I found during my adventures."

"Then I met your mother. And she was the first and only woman I loved."

"The stronger you are the harder it is to get pregnant so we didn't expect you at all."

"When your mother got pregnant with you I was already more than 10 years into my project. And I was succeeding."

"I used my own DNA to build the foundation because she had to be a human, that is why she resembles me so much. But the binary helix of the human DNA was very unstable during my experiments so I had to develop a more sturdy helix which I came to create the Penta-stranded helix by exogenously applying oligonucleotide to a target duplex sequence.

My awakening power is life essence manipulation. It played a gigantic part in preventing DNA breakdown."

"Penta-forming oligonucleotides can bind to duplex DNA in a sequence-specific fashion with high affinity. That gave me the possibility to use direct DNA-modifying agents to select DNA sequences."

"I was able to add other DNA of other beings like The winged race, monsters, ocean-borne mythical beasts, celestials, the battle born, the tusk race, the insect race, and many other lifeforms. I myself couldn't predict the outcome of the DNA she has in her body."

"Because her DNA is inherently mutagenic and recombinogenic, such that the elements and structure of her DNA completely changed and evolved into something this world has never seen before."

"The rest is a very long and complicated story. I think I'll save that for another day."

"In other words, your sister is a completely new human lifeform. She is human but her organs, bones, and muscle fibers are totally different from us."

Dez looked around the table at everyone. First, he thought his father was joking. Or this must be some type of made-up story.

But looking around it does not appear to be a joke at all.

"On a cellular basis, she is still human. Most of her other traits are still dormant. I believe that is a survival mechanism of her body. Because even if she is so strong her body is still weak compared to any other life form used in her DNA."

"That is why she can't drink this potion. I don't know what effect that will have. Do you remember what happened to that leaf wolf?"

Dez remembered the wolf's evolution and was in shock.

"Will that happen to sis?"

"Her DNA is extremely stable and powerful but is rather slow and uses a lot of energy."

"It took her 2 years, 6 months, 8 days, 4 hours and 20 min to be born. And that is while she was inside my liquified life essence. Like I said, I don't know what will happen to her."

"That is why she eats so much but still looks like an 8-year-old when she is already 10.

She is also tanking some nourishing solution I made for her."

"And that is why I don't know if she can awaken like other humans."

"Do you understand now, son?"

"Did everyone know about this?"

"Yes Dez we all knew." Spoke Zenayah after hearing her father telling her story to Dez.

"I can remember the day I was born. I was able to walk the next day. And in 2 months I was already able to speak. It's just that you were so small you don't remember." At that moment Dez went to her sister and hugged her.

"No matter what Zenayah, you will always be my beloved sister." That was a very emotional moment for the Selklor family.

Lifting his head Dez looks at the rising sun brightening up the horizon far into the distance.

Men yesterday was a crazy day. I hope today will be a lot more normal.