Before I was known as a rare dual-path kid and started striking fear into the hearts of our enemies, I lived a carefree life.

When my father arrived, I had just turned three and was trying hard not to scare my entourage with my peculiarities.

Before that day, my days were spent crawling around the castle and it became easier once I started to walk.

I would, ‘by accident’, find myself in the library where I would spend my time reading the many books there. I took precautions by concentrating on books with more pictures than words. That way, anyone would just think that I was mesmerized by the pictures and liked them instead of my true goal which was to learn more about this world.

The Kuzah family had existed for thousands of years, propagating around the world in hundreds of branches. As long as the main family remained in power, it wasn’t hard for the rest of the family to strive and continue developing.

My father, however, before me and my brother was the only Paladin of the family after the death of our grandfather.

It turned out that our family, like many other prominent families, had a way to pass down the paladin gene to an heir, ensuring the continued prosperity of the family.

There was a price however, the procedure would, in many cases, kill or cripple the giver.

…but for these families, it was a small price to pay to ensure that their descendants wouldn’t be bullied.

Fortunately, my father didn’t have to go through that.

As it turned out, my brother had suffered from radiation from me while in our mother’s womb.

From the Purple Phoenix's own words, with such close proximity, my twin brother was bound to either become a mage or a paladin depending on how his body dealt with the radiation.

My twin brother Jake then later awakened the Purple Fire, an element of a lesser tier than Purple Lightning.

He became a mage.

Ah…the Purple Phoenix.

I haven’t introduced you to her yet, have I?

She’s…peculiar.

Our meeting was an accident and had never been planned.

It turned out that as she died, she was so badly battered that her soul couldn't properly choose the target of her reincarnation. She didn’t have any energy to reincarnate on the spot, which would have even been a dangerous move as she would be weakened for a while before reaching her peak. Her enemy would just kill her again and there was a chance that she would die for good if she didn’t have enough energy to reincarnate into another body.

So, it turned out that as she fell on a random planet, as her energy reserves were dwindling gradually rendering her unable to keep her form only to remain as pure Purple Lightning, she fell on the first human that was in her trajectory.

She would’ve liked it if I happened to be a girl…but she really had no choice.

To make matters worse, the lightning obliterated my body but our souls fused together.

That situation allowed me to keep my memories as I was reincarnated as a normal human in some other Universe.

Her name is Eve. Just Eve. She never mentioned her last name to me no matter how many times I asked.

“Hello, Jack.” Eve's voice reverberated in my head, a few months after my fourth anniversary.

“Who are you?” I found myself surprised that I was calm in that situation. What could be crazier than reincarnation? Besides, it was just a voice so far.

“Huhu…look at you. Acting cool and all. Are you not afraid?” Eve seemed amused.

“Not really. At least even if I end up dying I know I’ll reincarnate. I’ll just take my chances elsewhere.” As Jack said that, he had a thought, “Does this have anything to do with that purple text in my head?” He immediately sat on the ground and closed his eyes to take a look.

When he got into his mind-space, he found that the purple text that used to be floating there was no more.

Instead, there was a huge Purple bird standing there. At least fifteen meters in height.

“I’ve never seen a bird like you. What kind of bird are you?” I asked.

“Are you not asking what I am doing in your body?” Eve asked as her bird form shifted into that of a beautiful woman wearing a purple dress.

I swear I have never seen a woman as beautiful as her. I was mesmerized for a moment and then shook my head to recollect myself. I asked, “ Are you the one who made me reincarnate? Would I have died for good if it weren’t for you?”

“I just fused our souls before our death, that’s all I did. But it seems we broke some rule, so the underworld of that Universe rejected us, but this one accepted us for some reason. That was my first time dying and I didn’t have any prior education into how a Lightning Phoenix reincarnates as I was the only one that has ever existed.” Eve said.

It was too much information than I could handle, but at least some of my unanswered questions were being answered.

“Since you fused our souls, will I become like you? A Lightning Phoenix?” I decided to ask the obvious.

“I don’t know how the laws of this universe will manage it, but yes, you will indeed turn into a Phoenix. That I know. Your body has already started the mutation.” Eve said.

“Why don’t I feel any different? There’s just this purple light coming out of me that only I can see, but other than that I do not feel stronger nor do I have any feathers. Just my senses are slightly stronger.” I said.

“That’s because I have been suppressing and sealing any surplus energy ever since you were in your mother’s womb.” She said.

“Why?” I asked.

“Because you have a twin brother and a mother. I had to do it so that they do not become an aberration because of the energy radiating out of you. But even with all of my efforts, your brother was still affected. I think he will awaken the lesser element of lightning-like fire…but it will stop there. He will just have incredible talent in the fire element for a human.” She said.

“Alright, I understand. Now, please give me back that power. This world is too dangerous. The more I learn about it, the more I am afraid of even coming out of my room. I had to suffer two assassination attempts so far when I went sightseeing in the city with my mother. Fortunately, there were knights following us and even more shadowing us. But they are just normal humans, what if the one to come to assassinate us is like my father…a paladin or a mage. I know they are rare but I still can’t rule out the possibility that it could happen.” I said.

But upon hearing my request, she gently shook her head, “I still think that a lightning phoenix is rare even in this universe. We do not know how strong the inhabitants of this universe are, so we must tread carefully. The reason I died was that some God wanted to use me as an ingredient in his alchemy. That God couldn’t dare to hunt a Fire Phoenix as the entire race would hunt him forever, so he decided on an outcast like me. I managed to badly wound him before I died. So you understand that I was as strong as a God when I was alive, do you want to live the same thing in this universe? Being hunted by Gods? Especially now that we still have at least fifty years to reach that level and even then we would still be in danger because there is a possibility that the Gods of this universe, wherever we are, are stronger than the previous one.”

“So what can I do? There’s no way I am waiting fifty years to fully live my life. I will be an old man by then even more so mentally than physically.” I said, a bit angry that she had a say in how I would live my life.

“Lightning isn’t my only power. I have learned many supportive abilities over time. Use those for the next fifty years, I will seal the Purple Phoenix bloodline and energy until has accumulated power fifty years later when we can instantly become a Purple Phoenix God. At least, then, we will have the strength to try and protect ourselves from anything.” she said as she waved her hands, and six different symbols appeared in the space between us.

“What are these?” I asked, these symbols reminded me of the Purple text.

“My Ability Runes. I tried using the spells I learned in the previous universe but they didn’t work in this universe. I have thousands of spells so it was a huge blow for me. But when I tried these Runes, I found that they resonated with the laws of this universe. They work. So I surmised that Runes are a universal language and can be used in any Universe. I just don’t know if there are any variations between the same Elemental Rune.” She said.

I looked at the six ‘Runes’ between us and then asked, “I know spells need mana as a power source to work. I read in the library that spells must be comprehended by that mage alone, by using his affinity with his element. The higher the affinity the more spells one can comprehend. And there are no spells that are alike between two mages of the same element, there’s always a variation.”

“But I know nothing about Runes. What are they?” I asked.

“Runes are a higher form of power. Once inscribed on something, let’s say a body or an object, they get the same properties as that elemental rune. In short, you can turn a non-magic user into a magic user and a normal object into an elemental object. Not only will his body mutate to fit the elemental rune, but he will also gain every spell used to create that Rune. He can only improve his mana and wouldn’t be able to add any spells to that Rune, that’s the only drawback.” Eve said, she stopped for a moment and then added, “Once, I reached a threshold in the comprehension of several spells of an element, I would have an epiphany and the result would be the creation of a rune. You do not succeed every time you have that epiphany, but once you do the rune you create is more or less stable. Unstable runes are best to be discarded of as they are a headache to the user. Imagine you want to send a wind blade with a wind rune, but end up sending a harmless gust of wind instead because the rune was unstable…”

“Okay, okay, I get it, just explain to me what these runes can do and if I can take them all,” I asked, still a bit disappointed that I won’t get to use lightning. It was the most destructive element that my humble mind knew. These supportive runes as she called them didn’t excite me one bit at the moment.