Chapter 402 - A Situation

Cecil was continuing to have those weird migraines even more frequently than before. Not only that, but as the migraines became more frequent, the voices he heard that kept calling out to him only intensified in frequency as well.

It was to the point where he couldn't even get a good night's sleep and would sometimes interrupt his condition in his daily life. Lucia and Serilla grew more and more worried as they couldn't do anything to help him.

They knew that something was wrong and did all they could to investigate what was causing their husband to experience this weird phenomenon. Lucia had even asked her mother, Anna, who was a transcendent on why this was happening to him. Anna did find the cause but unfortunately, there was nothing she could do since the one causing this was someone that had a power level on par or even higher than her cultivation.

The only thing she could tell was that there was something, or someone, trying to project their thoughts into Cecil's head but because they were injured or far away, the thought projection wasn't connecting very well and he could only receive small tidbits of the information that was trying to force its way into his brain.

This was the conclusion after Anna took her time to thoroughly examine Cecil's condition with the help of Anglaria Kingdom's Spirit Sage.

"How odd, the one trying to project their thoughts into the boy's head seems to be a transcendent...however, the person seems to be injured," Spirit Sage Tohrun deduced.

Anna also came to the same conclusion, but she found something quite odd with Cecil's condition. "My thoughts exactly, Elder Tohrun, but even if the person is injured, shouldn't Cecil be unable to resist having their thoughts projected into him? He's in this condition because he's unconsciously resisting the thought projection and since he's not powerful enough to fully resist it, he's experiencing the side-effects which are the delusions' he's suffering from."

"...That's impossible, this technique can only be used if you have ether and could only be resisted if you have it as well, how could—unless this boy—"

"Has ether as well?" Anna finished.

It was an absurd conclusion but there could be no other reason. Unfortunately for them, Cecil had been put to sleep by Lucia's spell so they couldn't ask him right away.

"We'll ask the boy himself after he's awake. I've already measured his cultivation level, but how does he already have ether? Also, how do you NOT know about this?" Tohrun asked.

"Cecil never told me anything. Even I'm surprised by this conclusion. Anyway, whether our deduction is true or not can only be explained by Cecil himself after he's woken up."

"Right, anyway, this boy sure gives me quite the surprise whenever I meet him. To think he already has ether at such a young age."

"Well, that's my daughter's husband for ya~ he's always full of surprises!" Anna said in agreement.

Though projection was something only a transcendent could use by manipulating their ether to transmit their thoughts and sight to a person of their choosing. Normally, no one would be able to resist this technique if they themselves didn't have ether.

Upon seeing that Cecil was unconsciously resisting the projection, they could only deduce that the boy indeed possessed ether. They were quite sure of this deduction of theirs but the only way to positively confirm it was if they asked Cecil himself about it.

Of course, they could just ask Lucia or Serilla about it since the two already knew about it.

Awhile later, Lucia came back into the room with a fresh basin of water and a few rolls of towels alongside Serilla and their maid.

"Ah, Lulu, Seri, we've been able to find why Cecil's suffering from these delusions," Anna said once the 2 had set down the things they brought.

"Really Mother? W-what's wrong with him then?!" Lucia quickly asked.

"Well, it's because he's resisting a certain technique from a Transcendent or higher level figure and since he's not powerful enough to fully resist it, he's experiencing some side-effects..." Her mother answered.

"Is that so..." Lucia gnashed her teeth in anger before she slightly growled, "Who's the bastard that's doing this to him?"

"Sorry little one, but unfortunately even with both your mother's power and my power, we couldn't track him. We could only conclude that this person is much more powerful than the both of us, however, he's injured to some degree since Cecil could resist their technique," Sage Tohrun said.

"...Tch... so we can only sit here and watch while Cel suffers?!"

"Lulu, that's enough. Why are you taking out your anger on Elder Sage and your mother?" Serilla reprimanded her lightly.

"I...didn't mean to...but I don't like the fact that there's some bastard out there messing with Cel..."

"I don't like it too, but there's nothing we can do..."

Lucia began wiping away Cecil's sweat and her face darkened when she saw him grimace in his sleep.

Tohrun observed them for a bit and his eyes brightened a little and he ended up asking, "You girls...do you perhaps no whether or not young Cecil here has ether?"

"Ether? He has it, why elder? Is it bad?" Lucia replied in question.

"S-so it's true! My god, how does this child have ether?!" Tohrun exclaimed in shock.

"He's had ether for quite a while now, Elder Tohrun," Serilla spoke up. "Ever since he was able to level his mana and ki cultivation, he's been able to slowly combine and turn them into ether though quite a bit had been used up a few months back when he subdued the Merkruz Principality."

The maid quickly approached Serilla with a chair and helped her down on it. Her belly was now very big since she has already been half a year pregnant and it was hard for her to move around. Yet even with her body being in such a condition, she went to get Cecil some water and towels with Lucia earlier.

"Madam, please take care, your body is in no condition to be moving around so much."

"Haha~ it's fine. I can still swing a sword so fetching some water and towels for my darling isn't too much~"

"Madam, the Master did ask you to refrain from doing any strenuous activities—"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I did say that..."

"Cel!"

"Darling!"

Cecil had just woken up and heard Serilla's words earlier so he couldn't help but retort. However, his face was a little pale and he was sweating profusely.

"How long was I able to sleep this time?"

"...About 3 hours... The magic is working less and less now..." Lucia replied with a frown.

"Yeah... lately, the longer I sleep, the more dreams I get. Not to mention that damned voice keeps ringing in my head even when I'm asleep..."

"A-are you sure you're okay, darling?" Serilla asked concernedly.

"I'm fine. Don't worry about me. You, however, should take better care of yourself. I know you've been growing restless but please don't trouble the maid. Anyone would be worried if you went around my back and began practicing your sword swings..." Cecil quickly reprimanded.

Serilla only coughed and turned her head away. Cecil could only sigh at her reaction since it was true that she had been getting in some sword training behind his back.

"Seri, remember that you're—"

"E-enough about me! Elder Tohrun seems to have a few questions for you!" Serilla quickly tossed the baton over to Sage Tohrun when she saw that Cecil was about to reprimand her again.

Cecil saw this and he released a sigh before turning his attention over to Tohrun who was patiently waiting.

"Elder Tohrun, I'm sorry that you had to come out all the way here. Is there something you needed to ask me?"

"Ah, yes, Cecil. Well, it's not just me, but your mother-in-law also has the same question. Though we did get confirmation from your wives earlier, it'd be better to ask you directly," Tohrun replied.

"Okay, what is it?"

"Do you have Ether?"

"Ether? Well, yes, I do have it," Cecil said.

He began manipulating the Ether inside his body and covered his hand in a thin layer of the energy.

When Anna and Tohrun felt the energy form around Cecil's hand, their eyes immediately brightened. The two looked at each other before nodding to one another.

Anna quickly opened her mouth and said, "Cecil, this is really unprecedented. Normally, no one should be able to cultivate Ether, at least not until they've reached the Transcendent Stage or the Perfection Stage of mana cultivation..."

"Is that so...Well, I only balanced out my Ki and Mana Cultivation before I started trying to combine them together. It succeeded and I've been doing it ever since," Cecil replied with a tilt of his head.

Probably because she and the sage didn't pay attention to it when Serilla had mentioned it before, Anna quickly asked, "Ki...where did you even—"

"Cel got the method to cultivate it back when we finished the World Tree's Trials, mom," Lucia cut in to explain. She quickly took a towel and began drying Cecil of his sweat.

"From back then? Well, it makes sense if you got it from the World Tree..."

"Mhm, I was lucky that I got it. I did teach it to Lulu and Seri, but only Seri was rather adept at training her Ki cultivation. Lulu can definitely do it, but she's lacking compared to Seri..." Cecil said.

Anna nodded in understanding and replied, "That's no surprise. Serilla is a descendent of the Lunar Rabbitkin, not only that, she inherited her mother's rare bloodline so it's a given that she's able to cultivate Ki very well, though it can't be the same for her Mana cultivation."

"Y-yeah, but I guess it was because of my bloodline that I was able to do it better than Lucia, huh? Though, my mana cultivation had always been lacking so I focused on my sword just like my mother," Serilla spoke up while scratching her cheek. She always had a problem with Mana cultivation. The same couldn't be said for her Ki cultivation. She was a genius at it though she's been restraining her Ki cultivation to try and keep it level with her Mana cultivation.

The results were great because as her Ki cultivation advanced hand-in-hand with her Mana cultivation, it boosted her lack of talent in her Mana cultivation. It was an unexpected good side-effect of Cecil's Equilibrium method of cultivation.

The same was with Lucia though she had a harder time since her Mana Cultivation was so high up that it took a very long time for her Ki cultivation to catch up and form the equilibrium in her body.

The work paid off because her abysmal talent in Ki cultivation was boosted by her Mana cultivation so she was advancing in both types of cultivation much quicker than if she had to do it separately.

Of course, both women's cultivation began to lag behind somewhat than their usual speeds of cultivation if they had cultivated it separately, but this way was better for the long run.

"The only thing that's different about us is that unlike Cel, we can't seem to fuse the two energies together to form Ether. It's like there's some kind of barrier preventing us from doing so," Lucia quipped up.

"Yeah, despite having our cultivations at an equilibrium like darling, we can't do his energy fusion," Serilla added in, in agreement.

Elder Tohrun stood up and walked over to Cecil. He took his wrist for a moment and grunted before setting it back down on the bed.

"It seems it has something to do with your constitution, boy. Anyway, this is good news for you, Cecil. Keep it up and one day you'll officially step into the Transcendent Stage. For now, it seems like you're just combining your energies to form Ether and use it as an expendable resource to empower your body and techniques. It isn't perfect like our Transcendent Cultivation, but it's enough for you to overpower anyone that's below a Transcendent and it could help you even fight someone of our power level."

"Yes, Elder Tohrun," Cecil nodded.

"Little Cel, make sure you don't actually go out and pick a fight with a Transcendent Master, okay? I won't tolerate you making my daughter a widow just because of your curiosity," Anna gently reminded with a smile.

Cecil flinched, turned his head away and mumbled, "Y-yes, mother..."

"Cel!"

"Darling!"

"..."

The mystery behind his mind deteriorating was still left under wraps, but at least they found the source of why he was experiencing these delusions. The best way for him to stop experiencing the delusions was to let his guard down and let the Thought Projection through into his head.