Chapter 3978: Faint Echo (Part 1) "No. I really don’t." Elina sniffled, her eyes misted with tears. "I thought there was no harm in teaching the babies a few words. Valeron is already two years old, and Lith learned how to read and write the same winter he became three. "Do a few months make that much of a difference?" "For a normal baby, no, but Elysia and Valeron are far from normal. They are already Awakened and very smart." Leegaain had no idea that Lith had Awakened at birth and had always been an adult in a baby’s body, giving him the wits not to use magic in public or harm others. "Learning how to read and write has taught the Hatchlings to associate words with symbols, and magical runes are nothing but symbols of power that can be vocalized, drawn, or conjured by a powerful mind. "Now, every time Elysia and Valeron see a spell or hear a magic word, they don’t just hear a funny sound and see some pretty lights anymore. They notice the structure of the spell as they do with normal words and try to reproduce them with their means. "Since they live in a house full of powerful mages who use their abilities to do everything they want, you have just given the babies the tools for learning the language of magic with the same ease as they are learning how to speak." "Is that a bad thing?" Elina asked. "It’s the dream of an academy professor, but the nightmare of any parent." Salaark replied. "Elysia and Valeron will start to use magic in the same way as they see us using it, but without our wisdom or self-restraint. "You’ve seen how casually the Featherlings have conjured water constructs and how Elysia employed Mirror Magic like it was a toy. Imagine what might have happened if, instead of an empty beach, you were in a crowded place or even at your home. "The water dragons would have tripped someone or flipped a table at worst, but that’s only because the babies lack the skill and power to do worse. The Zero spell, instead, might have hurt someone, and badly." "I’m sorry." Elina hated to sound like a broken record, but she didn’t know what else to say. "Is there anything we can do to fix this?" "No." Leegaain shook his head. "There is no way to unring a bell. We can only explain to the kids why they must refrain from using magic and hope they listen to us. They are intelligent for their age, but they are still Hatchlings. "If scared, bored, or excited, they might forget our warning because they either don’t care or think of the consequences." "About that." Kamila raised her hand, and the Guardians nodded for her to continue. "I’m certain that no one used Zero Magic in our house, so where did Elysia learn its magic word and rune? "Also, I know it’s a good thing, but why didn’t Valeron use it as well? They are usually two peas in a pod. Whatever one does, the other tries to follow." "Those are excellent questions, Kamila." Leegaain said, offering his hand covered in Dragon Scales to Valeron, who grabbed it. "You are not in trouble, Hatchling. I’m going to ask you a few questions, and I need you to be honest with me. Okay?" Valeron turned to Solus and Kamila to be reassured. "Okay." He answered after they smiled and caressed his head, proving they weren’t angry with him. "Do you know that magic word?" Leegaain asked, and Valeron nodded. "Did you learn it by yourself or did Elysia teach it to you?" "Ely." Valeron pointed at the baby girl who puffed black smoke out of her nostrils with pride. "Have you ever used it?" Leegaain kept smiling but crossed his fingers. "No." Valeron shook his head. "Bad word. Cold. Too cold." Leegaain felt the baby boy’s fear and revulsion at the Zero Magic via the Dragon Scales and inwardly sighed in relief. "You did the right thing. You are a good, brave boy." The Guardian patted the baby’s head before offering his hand to Elysia. "Who taught you that magic word?" Leegaain asked. "Me! Me! Me!" Elysia said in excitement. "How did you learn it?" "Jo-un!" She replied. "Jo-un bee la Je-a!" "Order and Chaos." Leegaain’s expression was serene, and his voice level, but everyone heard his words as a yell and could almost see him covering his face with his hands. "How bad is it?" Salaark asked. "She just said that Jorun felt kind like Jerak. That whenever someone uses water magic, she can hear a faint echo with slightly different magical words." Leegaain replied. "Elysia is converting chore magic into chore Mirror magic by pure instinct." "This is terrible!" The Overlord said, yet the others had trouble following. "And it can still get worse." Leegaain sighed. "Do you know other new words, Hatchling?" Elysia pondered for a while before replying: "Ei-du bee la Ea-u. Ifi-o bee la Ia-o." "She said that Ekidu also feels like Ekrasu and Infiro feels like Iratho." Leegaain and Salaark shuddered at those words, while everyone else only experienced slight discomfort. "In case you missed it, Elysia knows the basic words for Chaos and Cinder magic." "How is this possible?" Salaark wanted to pace around the room to relieve her stress, but she held still not to upset the babies. "Even we never learned the basic runes for Chaos magic until we fought our first Abominations. "Even then, we never practiced it, not even after turning into Guardians. If not for that idiot of Roghar perfecting a few Mirror Magic spells on his own and you stealing them with Dragon Eyes, we wouldn’t know how the other Cursed Elements work." "It’s actually simple, and Valeron gave me the answer." Leegaain patted Elysia, warning her never to use those bad words via the Dragon Scales. "Normal people like us feel a natural fear toward Mirror Magic. "We instinctively know how dangerous it is, and we keep away from it like we would from a wildfire or a tornado. The magic words for the Cursed Elements are contained in the world energy along with the normal elements, but we ignore them subconsciously. "Even if someone managed to notice and learn them like Elysia did, they would die at the first mistake, and their knowledge would disappear with them. Elysia, however, has stable Cursed Elements flowing through her life force. "She feels no fear towards all kinds of magic words and doesn’t filter any of them out." "I understand she’s a reckless baby, but she can’t be the only one on Mogar." Salaark replied. "Also, listening and doing are two completely different things. The slightest mistake in her spell and the Zero element would have hurt her. "How did she learn how to do that, and what happened to the Cinder element she must have generated?" "That’s the scariest part." Leegaain replied. "Elysia’s affinities allowed her to learn the right way to conjure Zero. She produced no Cinder because she only conjured pure water element from the world energy. "The imbalance was naturally restored by raising the temperature in her surroundings, but since the phenomenon applied to the whole oasis, not even you noticed it. Elysia’s spell is as safe for her as any elemental spell."