Chapter 850 – [Redacted] (Patreon)

“Lord Obatala, it’s a great honour to finally meet you,” Percy greeted.

He stood before the titan in the body of Kunlo. The young Green-born’s shoulders appeared unmistakably tense, but Obatala failed to spot even a trace of fear in the spirit borrowing his flesh.

“Before we discuss anything else, I want to apologize in person for acquiring your Decree without permission. Despite Duwa’s and Aje’s assurances that you haven’t taken any offence, I admit that convincing a child to share one of his people’s most precious resources wasn’t my finest moment,” Percy continued.

“We’re long past that matter, are we not?” Obatala waved the mortal’s apology away. “Young as Duwa was, he acted sensibly in compensating you for saving his life. Besides, you’ve already repaid us a hundred times over.”

Percy nodded to indicate that he believed so too, which elicited a chuckle from Obatala. Despite the mortal’s immaculate manners, it was refreshing to see him not acting overly meek before a powerful deity.

“I should also apologize for postponing our meeting for so long. Do you know what it was that finally brought me out of my seclusion?” Obatala asked.

“I assume that the stars turning blue a few days ago had something to do with it,” Percy replied.

“Indeed,” Obatala admitted with a sigh, glancing up at Gallimus’ twin suns. They had already returned to their original crimson colour, since the magical phenomenon only lasted a couple of hours each time. Nobody knew exactly how long it would be until the next time it happened, but historical data suggested that it would probably be hundreds of thousands of years at the earliest. “I take it that your gods have explained what all of that was about?”

“They have,” Percy confirmed. “I’ve got to say that I was shocked to learn that people like them existed, and I wasn’t the only one. I suppose that there’s not a single mortal in the universe who was alive the last time this happened, so it’s no wonder their existence isn’t common knowledge. The sight of our sun changing colour caused a lot of panic in our cities, but I was both horrified and relieved to see it happening on other planets as well.”

“What about after learning the reason behind it?” Obatala asked, studying Percy’s expression. “Were you disappointed to hear that some people are practically born with the universe in the palm of their hand? That no matter what the rest of us do, we’ll never be able to catch up?”

A faint smile formed on the young man’s borrowed lips. “Sir, with all due respect, you don’t honestly believe that, do you? If I’m not mistaken, the goal of your Decree is to imitate their special domain. Haven’t you spent your whole life trying to prove that Blue-borns aren’t all that different from the rest of us?”

“But are they not?” Obatala couldn’t help but sigh again, feeling more defeated than ever. “I must look like a hypocrite to you... For a Green-born like me to be envious of others... Yet that was precisely why I felt obligated to grant my people the power of the chosen ones. To show everyone that one’s birth grade doesn’t define who they are. Only, I’m starting to think that I was mistaken all along.”

Green-borns were already much rarer than those born at lower grades, as they typically emerged at a rate of one in ten thousand people. However, even they were common compared to Blue-borns.

Most habitable planets would never produce one. In the entire recorded history of the universe, fewer than ten people had been born at Blue, including the most recent one. It was impossible for a new Blue-born to slip by unnoticed, since the stars themselves would celebrate their appearance.

Nobody understood the mechanism behind the phenomenon. There were theories floating around that stars were powerful Ancients of a bygone era, like larger and stronger versions of the living planets. If that were true, it would raise the question of whether those enormous beings were even aware of what was happening to their bodies.

Some scholars also believed that mana hadn’t always existed in its present form, and that the Colour realm had once worked differently. Perhaps Blue-borns were entirely a product of the current era, or maybe the births of similarly talented mortals used to produce different cosmic phenomena in the past.

Regardless of the circumstances surrounding their emergence, there was no denying how unfair their existence was.

Other mortals awakened their cores in early childhood, with the exact age varying from species to species. Blue-borns, on the other hand, awakened theirs the moment they emerged from their mother’s womb or hatched from their eggs – sometimes sooner.

Green-borns on lesser springs lived long enough to attain divinity while cleansing their cores with inferior resources, but Blue-borns didn’t even need that. They could reach the Clear grade through manual core-cleansing – a technique that came as naturally as breathing to them, even if their people hadn’t discovered it.

Even a Blue-born that appeared on an uncivilized, barren world was practically guaranteed to become a demigod, sooner or later. Their powerful domains rendered them invincible against weaker creatures, making it extremely difficult for a Blue-born to get killed before growing up. It was possible, in theory, for a baby Blue-born to be overwhelmed by a group of attackers or betrayed by their family before they learned to defend themselves, but every Blue-born known to date had survived to adulthood.

On barren worlds, their tribes invariably worshipped them like deities. Even the people of lesser and greater springs didn’t treat them all that differently, because they knew better than most what the little monsters were capable of.

One would be excused for thinking that having a head start in the Colour realm wasn’t all that important to a greater spring that could turn their Green-borns and Yellow-borns into deities. What did it matter if a rare genius could reach that level a little sooner?

Except that a Blue-born’s talent wasn’t limited to the speed of their promotions.

Every single Blue-born in existence had become a paragon, capable of fighting on par with deities upon reaching the peak of the Colour realm. Every single Blue-born had attained divinity – something that was never a guarantee for anyone else, regardless of how talented they appeared as mortals. Every single Blue-born had cast a Decree and turned into a titan. And every last one of them had even reached the peak of the Elemental Acquisition stage extremely quickly, finding themselves at the helm of some of the strongest greater springs in existence. In fact, it was a Blue-born who was rumoured to have pioneered that stage in the first place.

If there was any consolation to the rest of the universe, it was that Blue-borns weren’t guaranteed to possess a rare affinity – though they seemed more likely than most to have one. Even they hadn’t managed to acquire any rare elements as deities or advance beyond the Elemental Acquisition stage.

Furthermore, it seemed that beasts couldn’t be born at Blue, otherwise it should have already happened due to how much more widespread beasts were than sapients. No Blue-born had emerged among the peak factions like the Moirai or the Void Hand either, sparing the universe from the threat of a two-cored Blue-born.

So far, at least. Perhaps the child that had caused all the ruckus a few days earlier had changed that, though it was statistically unlikely. Either way, it would be a while before anyone tracked them down.

Even though the peak factions hadn’t managed to get their hands on their own Blue-borns in the past, some of the greater springs ranked in the top ten or twenty had attained their lofty status after producing or adopting one of those monsters. There were probably dozens of powerful worlds hunting the clueless child at that very moment, planning to kill or recruit them.

“The way I see it, they just have one advantage over the rest of us,” Percy replied with a shrug, breaking Obatala out of his thoughts. “A big advantage, admittedly, but ultimately no different from a Moirai with two rare affinities, a mage with a powerful bloodline, or any of a dozen other things.”

“That might be an oversimplification,” Obatala protested. “Their Innate domain is so powerful that it allows them to fight three grades above their own by relying on their willpower alone. And it leads to them comprehending the external concept of Willpower too, which seems to be completely out of reach for everyone else. That allows them to automatically retain a part of their advantage over other deities with the same number of elements after ascending, on top of being guaranteed to master all the common affinities.”

The strongest Blue-borns were currently estimated to be Twenty-Seventh Circle mages. Only some of the most talented Moirai or Void Hand deities could match them or were expected to surpass them eventually.

“It is what it is. There was a time when I would have lamented my low birth-grade or how easy Blue-borns have it, but I’m honestly just excited to know that there is another interesting concept for me to study. Isn’t that what you wished to talk to me about?” Percy asked.

Obatala studied the foreigner closely, failing to find any flaw in his confident expression. Whether Percy truly had the talent to back his confidence up remained to be seen, but Obatala couldn’t help but appreciate the mortal’s disposition.

“How unseemly of me... having to get lectured by a child a fraction of my age...” The titan chuckled. “It is as you say. It is my duty as a titan of Gallimus to keep working hard for my people. As for the outcome... it’s way too early to be giving up on my magic. Even if I fail to improve upon my Decree, somebody else might complete it.”

“That’s more like it!” Percy grinned. “I was once told that gods – not to mention titans – are those who strive to define what’s possible rather than ruing what isn’t.”

“Wise words,” Obatala admitted, the corner of his lips curling up into a smile of his own. “Will you show me, then?”

“Huh?”

“What’s possible,” Obatala clarified. “Aje spoke very highly of your domain. I want to see how close it is to the next level – how close you are to comprehending the concept of Willpower.”

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A/N: Chapter 850 – Blue-born