Reincarnated as a step-dad in a fantasy world

Chapter 87 : Spirit of smoke

Alex froze, well, his thought process came to a halt.

'Did I just hear a voice ?' Wondered Alex.

He heard it clearly, someone had just spoken to him, but how was that possible? Lilia didn't say anything about such a thing.

'Did she forget to mention this or am I going crazy ?' Pondered Alex.

"I don't know who you are talking about, but I doubt that that person had an idea of something like that being possible, after all, it's not every time that the spirits bother themselves to speak to someone that try to enhance their affinity with them".

This time there was no doubt, something or someone with a deep and powerful voice was addressing him, and by the words of this being it seemed to be the spirit of the smoke element.

'Spirit? I have never heard of such a being, is it here to stop my ascension to true sovereign?' Wondered Alex nervously.

If this spirit was indeed here to stop the process, Alex wasn't sure if he would truly be able to push through on the true sovereign route, he could instinctually sense it, this being that just spoke to him was above him in every aspect.

"Don't worry, I'm not here to stop anything" 

'Wait, you can read my thoughts ?'

"We are in your consciousness, so it's normal that I hear everything that you think"

'It does sound logical' thought Alex after pondering on the matter for a moment.

There was a silence for a moment before Alex asked :

'You said that you are not here to stop the process of me becoming a true sovereign, why? From what you said, I deduce that you are the smoke element spirit, does it not affect you that I subdue the element' 

Although he never heard anything about the elements having a spirit, he could guess a few things. From that, his thoughts were: The spirits should normally feel something when someone subdues their elements, right?

To his surprise, instead of an answer he heard the smoke spirit laugh uproariously, it kept laughing for some time before finally falling silent.

"It still amazes me how you Humans think that you can actually subdue us elements" said the spirit with a chuckle.

'Ehh, what are you speaking about, didn't you say that you are a spirit, why are you calling yourself an element?' Asked Alex, feeling confused.

"What made you think, in the first place, that a spirit was different from its element?" Asked the spirit with an amused tone.

'Wait, if the spirit and his element are the same, then subduing the element means subduing the spirit, right? But it should be impossible' thought Alex to himself.

The reason he thought it was impossible was because he knew that he couldn't subdue the spirit right in front of him, or to become a true sovereign, it is necessary to subdue one's element.

'In this case, the true sovereign-'

"There are no true sovereigns, all the true sovereigns out there are just false sovereigns, even those -like you - that have 'subdued their element' are false sovereigns as it is not their element that they have subdued, but just a tiny portion of the spirit consciousness. What makes people think that they have achieved true sovereignty is the fact that we give them a better control to congratulate them for subduing a portion of our consciousness, that's all" explained the smoke spirit.

The smoke spirit's words shocked Alex, but after a few seconds, he composed himself. When one thought about this matter deeply, it would seem somewhat ridiculous for a person to be able to overpower the will of an actual element, especially when it was something that even a level 4 like Alex could achieve.

Normally, it would be something that perhaps only a restrained circle of powerful beings can do, but it clearly wasn't the case.

'If you are not here to stop the process of me becoming a false sovereign, then why did you reach out to me? From your words, it isn't something that occurs normally,' asked Alex.

"I didn't reach out to you, it's the Other way around" 

'Huh? What are you talking about, I definitely did not do something like that' argued Alex, feeling confused about what he just heard.

"Hmm, it's quite peculiar, I'm sure that it was you that tried to link your soul to mine, but it seems that you are also clueless about it" said the spirit in a thoughtful voice.

The moment he heard about him trying to link his soul to the one of the smoke spirit, Alex thought of a possibility.

'Could it be that-'

"What are you thinking about ?" 

'Well, I have an ability called 'soul linkage', I just thought that maybe it's because of this ability, but now that I think about it, I don't think it's due to that, it allows me to connect my soul with that of other, but I don't know how to activate it' answered Alex.

"Hmm, I think that you are wrong, sometimes you might activate your ability even if you don't do it consciously" 

'But, why would it activate, though?' Questioned Alex.

"I think I get, from what you explained, your ability allows you to link your soul with that of another being, right?"

'Yes'

"My guess is that it's due to you being in contact with a portion of my consciousness. This segment of consciousness is linked to my main consciousness, which, in turn, is connected to my soul. The same applies to you – your consciousness is linked to your soul. So, by extrapolation, we can infer that our souls came in contact when you interacted with my wisp of consciousness."

'What you mean is that my ability kicked in at that moment and tried to link our souls together?' 

"Bingo"

'Hmm, there is some sense in it', Thought Alex, then he shamelessly asked. :

'Sooo, now that the mystery of why you are here is cleared, can you tell me how to become a real true sovereign?'.