54 Elder Speech (1/2)
”Ssagnasa! F'aactha xuia'taftr un lftatha ang urra' xuia'taftr su sha tsuftftnatt!”
A violent, raging wave of Anima rushed out of Reed and permeated into anything it passed effortlessly. Whatever the wave touched instantly became rigid and lifeless, akin to stone. Everything around him froze in place, be it the trees, flowers, and animals, all the way down to the blades of grass around him.
Even the wind had gone silent in the presence of the Anima wave. Nothing had been spared in the sudden outburst of power that Reed had summoned. The remaining Anima blade had also vanished into nothingness in the wake of the effect. Silence reigned across the land as Reed gazed upon his unintentional work in pure shock.
Thankfully, the effects of his power did not last long and slowly faded away in a couple of seconds. It was as if the invisible grasp that had held everything in place could not persist for very long. The world trembled in protest and fiercely shook off the force that had constrained it. Life and motion quickly returned to his surroundings and everything returned back to normal.
Lu'um simply stared at Reed with an unidentifiable expression in silence. Her eyes radiated a coldness that could freeze the devil himself in place as she cautiously gazed at Reed as a hunter would look at prey.
”Speak, boy! Who has taught you the ways of Elder Speech?! Who has taught you the way to use Words of Power?! It is an affront to Heaven itself to use that knowledge without permission! Those who would freely use Elder Speech for their own reasons are rebels — traitors who have forsaken the world!” said Lacrima.
”I-It wasn't me! I don't know what you're talking about! The words just came out of my mouth after that bastard started messing with my head!” said Reed as he clutched his head in pain. It seemed that the effect of speaking whatever he had spoken came with a consequence of its own…
”Who is this bastard you speak of? There is no one other than us here; I cannot detect the presence of a foreign intruder anywhere in the vicinity. Explain yourself quickly and clearly, boy. But for now, let us go somewhere private, where prying ears cannot reach us…”
Two figures quietly gazed at the young boy out in the courtyard with differing expressions from the estate. They'd been warned beforehand by their previous master about the boy's unique habit of creating unexpected events, but this was something else.
He'd felt his heart stop beating all together when the Anima wave passed by him. His limbs had gone stiff and rigid like a corpse's. Even his mind had slowed and stagnated under the effect of the boy's power, unable to even think coherent thoughts. He, a veteran conqueror who ranked among the top five-hundred conquerors in the world, had been rendered a living vegetable by a child a fifteenth his own age.
”We've been assigned to serve a very, very special master this time, huh… What do you think, Mira? Is he good enough for you now?”
Mira roughly said, ”Where the hell did Lady Violett find this boy? Is he even human? With him, Lady Violett's path to the throne is all but guaranteed. The Crown Prince and the Fellspring family are finished.” Her face was abnormally flushed with excitement and interest as she gazed at Reed's tiny figure in the courtyard.
Arcano said, ”I agree with you… on the basis that he is not snuffed out before he matures. Dragon whelps are not threatening, but adult dragons on the other hand, haha…”
”But that's why we're here, no? To make sure that no one touches Lady Violett's dragon whelp. Can't have someone kill or steal him away from us— I mean, Lady Violett…”
Reed grit his teeth and did the best he could to explain what had happened to him and the world from his perspective as he wrangled with the annoying, pounding headache that had arisen. About how time had frozen, about the hooded man and his cryptic warning, and about how he had messed with his mind and done something to it…
”…Is it even possible for someone to affect the world on such a massive scale, even with Anima?” said Reed as he laid down on his bed in exhaustion.
”Theoretically, yes. But the level of control and the amount of Anima required to perform such a thing would make it nigh-impossible for anyone to do it in reality. The only way to feasibly do it would be for someone to possess an extremely powerful tool or device to help them accomplish this. Even then, the user would need to have god-like skills in Anima manipulation,” said Lacrima.