Chapter 4: This Baby Is Too Strong!

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The next morning arrived, and I slowly woke up, opening my eyes. To my relief, I hadn’t slept for an unnaturally long time—apparently only the usual amount. That felt strange, though, because inside the Draconic Records it seemed like days, perhaps even weeks. Time perception there was truly bizarre.

Whatever the case, the sun stood high in the sky, birds chirping brightly, and my mother was right there to greet me with a warm smile as I stirred.

“Good morning, Elizabeth. How are you today?” she asked gently.

I sat up slowly on the bed and yawned, feeling something stir within my Soul the moment I looked at her. I quickly glanced back down at the sheets for a second.

What was that inside my soul? Wait—I could actually feel my soul now. The sensation was so odd: an ethereal presence deep within my body. But how did I even recognize something as “ethereal”? It was genuinely bewildering.

Shining with soft azure light, a beautiful flower made entirely of azure ice rested inside my soul. It looked strangely lonely in the still-undeveloped space, yet azure-colored, ice-formed roots were slowly spreading outward from it.

Whenever I tentatively “touched” the flower with my consciousness, a peculiar sensation rippled through me. My affinity with cold, ice, snow, and winter felt noticeably stronger, almost instinctive.

Somehow…I felt I could do something with this.

“Hmm…!”

“Huh? What’s wrong—Woah?!”

My mother jumped in alarm as I reached out and touched the edge of the cradle. Without effort, a sharp icicle shot upward and pierced the ceiling.

Wait—is this magic?!

It had to be!

“Woah! Cool!” I exclaimed aloud.

“Y-You can use magic already?!” My mother’s eyes widened in shock. “But the sigil your father placed should have prevented that…”

“Hm?” I tilted my head innocently. “Heheh!”

I only giggled, raising my tiny hands as I focused. Mana surged from my body in the form of azure, ghostly energy. It spread rapidly, forming clouds overhead that began gently snowing across the entire room.

“It’s snowing now!” My mother gasped, then clapped delightedly. “Well, it’s not so bad if Elizabeth knows how to control it! What else can you do?”

“Hm…” I considered for a moment. “Ah!”

I gathered Mana into my palms, touched the bed, and instantly froze it solid. From the ice, large azure-colored flowers bloomed—each petal delicately formed of shimmering ice crystals.

“Wow!”

My mother clapped even harder, utterly astonished.

It felt as though my Ice Magic let me shape ice into anything I imagined, though the range and precision were limited by my inexperience with Mana control.

Even after all this time, I still wasn’t at full strength. I needed to train diligently. If I pushed my magic to its limits, perhaps I could break through the seal my father had placed and finally unleash my true innate abilities.

The ones he seemed so afraid of—well, Chaos & Harmony really were monstrously powerful Skills, so I could understand his caution…

“Mirai, are you done changing the girl? We should eat breakfast and prepare for the visit of the—What in the world is happening here?!”

My father stepped into the room and froze. The entire space was covered in frost, snow drifted from the ceiling, and a garden of ice flowers bloomed everywhere.

“A-Ah, look! The girl awakened ice magic, Louis!”

“W-Wha…?! But I placed the sigil on her so she wouldn’t cause destruction until she was old enough—Elizabeth, stop it!”

“Why?”

“It’s dangerous.”

“Hm, no!”

“Are you disobeying your father, young lady?”

“Heh.”

My father’s face registered pure shock. His eyes widened and one eyebrow twitched violently. “What sort of disrespect is this…”

But instead of growing angrier, he suddenly sighed deeply, looking unexpectedly depressed.

Oh no—did I make him sad?

“Dear, she’s just a three-year-old,” my mother said gently. “Do you really expect perfect obedience from someone who’s barely lived three years? She’s smart, though. Elizabeth, can you stop, sweetheart?”

“…Ok,” I nodded. I released the magic; the ice slowly began to melt away.

“See? She’s smart,” my mother smiled proudly. “And she had perfect control over her magic.”

“What?! You call that whole mess perfect control?” he asked incredulously.

“I mean, she produced clouds that created snow, then shaped an entire garden of individual ice flowers—and through it all, she never once hit me,” my mother defended.

“Hmm…” My father studied me with worried eyes, arms crossed. “Haaa… I’ll think about it. As long as she behaves and doesn’t destroy anything with her magic, I may just let her keep it.”

Ugh, now I regretted making him so much of a worrywart—more than my own mother!

“Now, onto more important things,” he sighed, brushing ice dust from his shoulders. “She has to get ready, Mirai. Let’s bathe her and prepare her.”

“Okay,” my mother agreed. “Come on, dear—bath time, your favorite.”

“Hm!” I nodded eagerly.

My parents carried me to our vast, luxurious bath and placed me in a small tub. They washed me carefully with warm water—even my grumpy father helped without hesitation. I guess he still loved me after all.

At one point I spread foam everywhere, and a big glob landed right on his head. He glared grumpily at first, but he looked so ridiculous that we all burst out laughing. Eventually he cracked a small smile, called me “little rascal,” and started playing with the foam alongside us.

♢♢♢♢

While eating breakfast, I idly played with tiny ice crystals between my fingers. Even without visible status screens like in the game, I could sense something inside me slowly progressing. The more refined, precise, and complex my ice magic became, the stronger that inner growth felt. Circulating Mana through my body also filled me with renewed energy, sharpened my control over my movements, and noticeably boosted my speed, vitality, and durability.

“Are they coming soon?” my mother asked between bites.

“No, another couple of hours,” my father replied, glancing at me. “I suppose once we finish breakfast… Hm. Since she’s so interested, maybe we could teach her a little more about magic.”

“Really?” My mother looked surprised.

“?!” I perked up instantly.

“When I was her age I was just a dumb kid,” my father admitted. “I couldn’t do half the things she’s already doing—mostly because I was almost purely human. But it’s clear our daughter is different. She takes after my mother far more. Dragons born with such strong bloodlines, especially those already in Dragonoid form like her, develop incredibly fast. From what I’ve heard, in just a year she was already speaking fluently, making friends, playing, and even fighting alongside her parents… So it would feel unfair to deny her that childhood and force her to live like a normal human when she clearly isn’t one.”

“Oh… I guess you’re right,” my mother nodded thoughtfully. “And isn’t she a little demon-like too? Though my vessel—the body I was born into—is human, my soul…”

“It might be,” my father agreed. “So far it feels like both our dragon and demon bloodlines have fully merged in her. She could be like my uncle Drakda—a Demon Dragon—but at the same time a Chaos Dragon, an Ice Dragon, and a Celestial or Heaven Dragon. She might be all four at once…the first ever born like this.”

“That’s incredible,” my mother breathed. “The sigil you placed… did you do it because you sensed that power?”

“Indeed. I was afraid it might be too dangerous,” my father admitted. “And I still believe it is! However… maybe starting with the basics as the years pass will encourage her to grow faster and stronger.”

While listening, I debated whether to mention Hrymdra. For now, I decided to keep my words simple and baby-like to avoid suspicion. Maybe I was being overly paranoid, but caution felt wiser.

Time passed. After breakfast, my parents led me to a separate studio filled with magical trinkets: weapons, artifacts, potions, elixirs, three large alchemy cauldrons, even a magic forge and a spirit forge.

“Waow.”

My mother smiled and set me on a small, cushioned seat built for my size. My father stepped forward like a proper teacher and opened a thick book.

“Elizabeth, even though you’re still very young, I already know you’re quite intelligent. You understand our speech perfectly, don’t you? Let me teach you more about magic, its origins, and Fantasium.”

“Oh…”

I already knew most of it, so this was going to be a bit boring. I rolled my eyes slightly as my father launched into his lecture.

“Fantasium is a special supernatural energy—the origin of all supernatural phenomena. It is born from the Fantasy Dimension, an extremely unstable and toxic substance capable of causing mutations and even distorting space and time. It is the source from which other energies such as Mana, Spirit Energy, and more originate.

This has been known since the earliest records in Yggdrasil, a world entirely born from Fantasy itself, brought to that solar system by the Ancient Fantasy Tree. From there, Fantasy eventually spread across the universe, birthing new realms and opening portals to previously inaccessible dimensions.

When a great cataclysm struck Yggdrasil—the legendary battle between my grandfather, the Divine Dragon King, and the primordial beings Pandemonium and Chaos—reality itself fractured. Fantasium leaked everywhere at an accelerated rate.

Worlds once connected to Yggdrasil—Spiritias, the realm of Spirits; Zipangu, created by a sun goddess; and among many others, Earth—our ordinary planet of humans—were gradually infected. That contact triggered a catastrophe, an apocalypse that nearly ended humanity.

But we adapted. With help from the Fantasy Worlds, including my mother Benladra, the Holy Dragon Mother, humanity was protected and taught to harness this energy. Though countless lives were lost, survivors learned to live with it. From mutations and intermixing between species, Sinners were born.

Your mother, I, and you are classified as ‘Sinners’—beings born between humans and the supernatural. Though the term has largely fallen out of use after worldwide efforts ended Sinner discrimination, it still lingers in some mouths.

The connection to the Fantasy Dimension created an unstable spatial rift in Earth’s Antarctica, linking our world to the Dimensional Labyrinth—an endless spiraling maze of parallel, destroyed worlds swallowed by the Fantasy Dimension.

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

From there, Dimensional Rifts tore open across Earth. Entities and Grievances emerged—powerful, distorted beings capable of warping space and reality—humanity’s greatest enemy. They have now been vanquished by us.

After that long, brutal war, Earth finally stabilized. The rift to the Dimensional Labyrinth was sealed, the planet was saved, and with everyone’s help we terraformed the world—cleansing the distorting Miasma and fully transforming Earth into a Fantasy World before it was too late.

Now we live in a new era forged through the sacrifices and efforts of all who fought or gave their lives to make it possible.”

Damn. I wrote most of that lore myself but hearing it straight from my father felt completely different—profound, almost overwhelming. The history of this world tied so perfectly to Fantasium.

“I hope that wasn’t too confusing,” he said with a confident smile, readjusting the glasses he wore purely for the teacher aesthetic—he didn’t even need them. “Do you understand the power you wield better now, my daughter?”

“Uhhh…” I acted a little confused even though I’d understood it from the start.

“Of course she wouldn’t get it all at once! Why did you dump everything on her in one go, Louis?” my mother shook her head. “Just teach her the fundamentals of Fantasium, Mana, and so on—then Magic Circle creation…”

“Haaa… No, I think she got it. She has that sharp gaze I once had,” my father said proudly. “She definitely gets it…! So anyway, Elizabeth, it’s time for your proper classes. Let’s begin with Fantasium itself.”

He spread his hand. Pure, undiluted Fantasium appeared—a strange, rainbow-hued ethereal cloud that constantly shifted colors and sent ripples through the air around it. At any moment it could tear space apart; its raw power was terrifying.

“Raw Fantasium is too unstable and powerful for you right now,” he explained. “You likely won’t be able to wield it directly. This, however, is Clean Fantasium—weaker, but controllable. It lacks the infectious properties of the raw form and has purifying qualities.”

The substance changed in his palm, becoming clearer, like radiant rainbow light rather than gas. He shaped it into floating letters and tiny animals just to amuse me.

“And this is Divine Power,” he continued, compressing the Clean Fantasium into bright white-gold light that radiated gentle heat. “Divine Power lets you alter the laws of the elements, while Fantasium is the laws themselves. You’ll naturally develop this as you grow, along with one or more Divinities—Authorities over Laws and Elemental Domains.”

I nodded eagerly as he split the Divine Power into two distinct energies.

One glowed with interwoven green, blue, red, and yellow light—beautiful and sparkling. Yeah, I recognized that one.

The other was pure flowing blue, like ethereal water made of semi-transparent energy.

“And these are Spiritual Energy and Mana,” he said. “Spiritual Energy is the elemental essence present throughout all of Fantasy. Mana is the most basic, compressed, and filtered form of Fantasium—breathed by nearly everything in every Fantasy World. It often functions as a secondary energy system inside living beings. Spiritual Energy is also what Spirits are composed of. Spirits are sentient masses of elemental energy. They oversee the world’s elements; there are quintillions of them, constantly being born. They range from microscopic to the size of animals or greater—eventually becoming Divine Spirits or even Primordial Spirits.”

He shaped the Spiritual Energy into tiny flying creatures that danced around me, leaving me wide-eyed in wonder.

“So, that’s about it,” he concluded. “Right now you’re wielding pure Mana. I also sense Ice-Attribute Spiritual Energy within you. You seem to blend them seamlessly into circle-less magic without incantations or gestures—you’re an innate Sorcerer.”

“Oooh!” I nodded enthusiastically.

“For now, we should check if you have any special organ,” he said.

“Organ?” I asked curiously.

“People from Yggdrasil are often born with a Mana Heart. Dragons have Dragon Hearts, Demons have Demon Cores,” he explained. “Your Fantasy Heart is already awakened, but that one exists metaphysically between you and your soul—it can’t be reached physically except through a direct attack on your Fantasy Domain.”

“…?” I tilted my head.