God of Contracts: Strongest Businessman

Chapter 35 Anomaly II

"Becau-"Elian wanted to justify but stopped because he realized the problem. Yes why couldn't he? After all, El manipulates lightning with the exact same body. Also Elian is still waiting for his mana veins to mature before knowing his elemental affinity and yet El, with the same unmatured mana veins can already wield lightning. How?!

Both questions posed couldn't be adequately addressed by DID alone. From a medical standpoint, DID involves the brain reorganizing itself through alterations in neural connectivity and functions, impacting memory and identity perception. While this reorganization might extend to influencing tastes or combat aptitudes, it has no bearing on elemental affinities, as that aspect is unrelated to the brain.

Elian had long been aware of his inability to wield lightning, a skill he didn't particularly care about since it held little relevance in runesmithing and technocrafting. Unlike others his age, combat prowess wasn't a concern for Elian, and it had minimal impact on his life. However, with the hints dropped by Ark, he couldn't help but be intrigued, and he surmised, "It's because of the soul mutation."

"Right once again. What else did you infer?" Ark inquired, visibly pleased.

"It likely occurred during that incident six years ago," Elian murmured, his fist clenched and eyes tightly shut, consciously avoiding the recollection of the scenes. In moments like these, he harbors a genuine disdain for his eidetic memory, which refuses to let him forget.

Forcing himself to continue, Elian speculated, "I can't say for sure the causes of the mutation, but if I had to guess, I would say that my survival instincts played a big role in the soul mutation," before stopping, unable to deduce anything further.

"Good job. I'll take it from here," Ark said. Seeing Elian's grim expression, he waved his hand, causing the haunting scenes in Elian's mind to vanish. Elian's tense demeanor relaxed, and Ark advised, "You should deal with that."

"I'm trying... Thank you," Elian responded with a subdued tone, acknowledging that Ark hadn't erased the memories but merely pushed them into the recesses of his mind.

Disregarding Elian's words, Ark continued, "The soul mutation you went through was quite peculiar. To escape danger, your soul found a way to create another soul tailored for your protection and safety."

"Create?" Elian exclaimed in disbelief. While not a soul expert, he was fairly certain that crafting a soul wasn't a simple task; otherwise, he would have heard numerous accounts of people surviving death with their own El-like versions.

"Yes, create. El's soul's only purpose was to protect you and enable you to flee. El's soul was designed for combat situations, explaining its natural combat proficiency, and for escape, hence the lightning affinity, one of the fastest elements in the universe."

Dismissing Elian's shock, Ark added, "El's soul is fully functional and independent. The reason you can't use lightning like El is because El and you share different souls, and the lightning affinity is a characteristic unique to El's soul."

Elian always thought that his brain created El with the necessary skills to save him. It was obvious for anyone knowing El that his whole life and skills set were dedicate to fights and flee. The best proof is that, despite sharing the same brain as Elian, his whole intelligence is combat oriented and even Lys is smarter than him in any other subject. However, he now realized that instead of the brain, it was the soul orchestrating these capabilities.

"So El is an anomaly because of the way he was created?" Elian suggested, understanding that Ark appreciated such insights.

Elian's observation was accurate, eliciting a broad smile from Ark. "Yes and no," Ark began. "No, because there are myriad methods in the universe to create, clone, copy, or alter a soul. Therefore, you haven't done anything wrong. Usually, these methods prompt an update in the soul registry, but these changes are typically temporary. None of these methods are permanent, so aside from natural births and deaths, no other phenomena can result in a lasting alteration in the soul registry."

Continuing to smile, Ark locked eyes with Elian for the first time in their conversation. "Despite this being a universal truth," he revealed, "a few years ago, on the soul registry of a newly formed planet, the count of permanent souls surpassed the number of living beings by one."

Elian shuddered under the intensity of Ark's gaze but managed to speak, "So you're saying that my soul managed to do something that no one has been able to do for eons?" Elian was someone who take pride in many things but his soul wasn't definitely one of those.

"Yes, I was as surprised as you when I noticed. Fortunately for you, I was the first to observe the problem, so I managed to conceal it from the others. However, you kept lending your body to El, making it increasingly challenging for me to hide it. If those individuals were to find out, you and El would be executed on the spot without trial, rendering all my efforts futile," Ark explained with a genuine expression of concern as he stopped staring at Elian.

Elian, now free from that pressure, crossed his arms and closed his eyes, taking a moment to absorb the overwhelming information he had just received. Basically, El is a fugitive hidden in Elian's body and he only managed to stay hidden thank to the collaboration of a mole who covered all his tracks. With this he can draw some conclusions notably the fact that Ark doesn't want Elian or El dead otherwise he wouldn't have bothered doing so much just to keep the secret and the fact that

"I guess I will have to stop lending my body to El?" Elian expressed with a hint of disappointment. It pained him to consider this, but he understood it was absolutely necessary.

"Yes, that would help," Ark affirmed with a nod.

Elian then realized he had been overthinking earlier. He felt relieved knowing that he only needed to take this step to prevent the worst from happening. However...

"Do you really think I summoned you just to convey that? You're quite naive. I have better things to do than summon you for just a few words. The only thing the soul mutation did was force me to summon you earlier than planned."