Sigilborn: EVE's Echo

Julius sat in front of an ash-covered Millie, who had just unsuccessfully attempted to light a fire using her Sigil's ability.

"So let me get this straight. You can control... FUCKING LIGHTNING AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ME?"

Millie nodded, a small, innocent smile on her face. Her Sigil on the top of her shoulder glowed a bright blue.

"Yep! Lightning, Dad named me the Goddess of Lightning in Intima. I could destroy mountains with ease!"

This wasn't a surprise to Julius, mountain destroying Lightning bolts, but she can't even light a fire without getting smothered in ash. It was probably Lucius controlling the lightning. Not her.

"Fine. I bite. But now, you need to start training. We have 4 more days until we reach the academy. I am NOT letting you destroy buildings with your Sigil."

Her lightning came out of her hands, not from the sky, so no risk of breaking roofs, but. He noticed something strange, instead of the usual blue or white of the lightning.

It was red. It didn't branch out. It was a single, strong bolt, and the taste on his tongue was. Much more metallic, more than normal lightning would allow.

'Hm. The color thing is weird, but. I think she's funneling proper, positively charged lightning. That's why she can't do anything useful.'

Julius stood up from the ground. Rolling his shoulder. He hadn't trained his own Sigil ever since Lucius awakened it; he was a bit too lazy right now. But Millie would probably cry if he didn't train alongside her.

"Alright. Stand up. Try to shoot me with the smallest bolt of lightning you can muster."

Millie raised an eyebrow but nodded, jumping to her feet as the girl pointed her finger straight at Julius before-

Bzzt..

A small hum for just a fraction of a second before a whole ass blue lightning bolt came straight at Julius who stood there with a calm expression before the lightning bolt got split in half branching out for a second, the thunder roaring across the forest before the light went away.

"Ya know. My Sigil definitely has gotten stronger and faster. But I still can't control it fully. I haven't even used it."

Julius mumbled under his breath, looking at his shaky hands. That was a gamble. A big one that relied purely on his luck. He didn't slice the actual lightning bolt or even use his Sigil; he just released mana from his body, gave the lightning a more convenient path to the ground, using mana.

'So mana is electrically conductive enough that lightning is attracted to it. But this time it was blue. Not red.'

He thought to himself as he looked up at Millie with a small, shaky smirk

"Millie. Is that really how low you can go?"

Millie nodded, her eyes beaming with excitement. She had never seen someone just make lightning part before it hit them.

"Yep! The thing is, my lightning sometimes goes red when I'm really excited and not controlling it."

That checked out. It seems that her lightning is both positive and negative.

Positive lightning is much more destructive. If she doesn't control it, she really might kill someone. Maybe it relies on her emotions? The more intense the emotion the stronger the lightning.

'Positive lightning is 10 times stronger than negative lightning. It'll be lethal if she shoots it at someone.'

Julius narrowed his eyes in the distance, over Millie's shoulder, as he saw a small swirling spiral open up from behind Millie, an arrow shooting towards them.

He raised his hand just in time to release an attack that chopped the arrow in half, killing its momentum as it fell to the ground. But just when Millie turned around, hundreds, if not thousands, of these small swirls opened up in front of them. 

"Um, Johan... What's going on?"

Julius remained composed. He wasn't going to just scream and yell; panicking wasn't his style. He was more attuned to trying to find weaknesses in attacks.

"Uh, duck and run below them."

Easy. They just slid beneath the swirls, dodging arrows that were way too fast for any of them to destroy or counter. So running was their only option for now.

"You got any idea why we're getting sniped, Millie?"

Before an answer was given, Millie let out a shriek as she was suddenly captured in a net made of black rope, thrown from someone from the top of the trees. And was immediately pulled up.

"Oh shit!"

Julius put his hand up to cut down the tree where Millie was hanging from, but then, he was put in a chokehold by someone from behind, but he didn't let up, putting his hand on the person's smoky grey hand before-

It fell to the ground with a light thud. His newly awakened Sigil now allowed him to cut things but touching them. But that wasn't enough.

He was kicked across the face, consciousness slipping from his hands. But again, he tried to cause as much damage as possible and launched a small slash of mana, hearing the pained yell of his attacker as their stomach was pierced.

'Good.. Suffer you piece of shit. Just wait until I wake up. I'll fuck your whole generation over.'

Millie watched from above, trying her best to break out of her bindings but failing. But she knew exactly who it was that attacked them.

"I KNOW YOU'RE FROM THE DARK ELVEN TRIBE! DO YOU NOT KNOW OF MY FATHER? LUCIUS IGNISAI! THE KING OF INTIMA!!"

That was her only chance to gain their attention; her father was feared as well as revered, even across enemy tribes, for his immense influence and bold moves against the humans almost 2 centuries ago.

The people below paused, their glowing purple eyes zooming up to Millie hanging from the tree. They seemed fearful, which was to be expected.

"Lucius Ignisai? You're his daughter? Then that means this human isn't trying to coerce you into joining his side?"

Millie just needed that one second to burn her way out of her restraints, falling to the ground with a loud thud as she managed to catch her weight.

"Yes! Now-"

She was cut off as the elf that had his hand cut off and stomach pierced lunged at her, headbutting her as she too, fell unconscious. But the other elves pushed him back, a female Dark Elf with short black hair and grey skin, pointing her glowing red arrows at the ballistic elf.

"Fuck. If Lucius Ignisai finds out that we even came near his daughter, he'll annihilate our whole bloodline. Take them both to Elder Muika, tell her about this situation. We need them both up and running before tomorrow morning. Ignisai finds out about things way too fast."

Her eyes both glowed with rage, and cowered. She was not going to deal with a man who single-handedly killed thousands of human men within the blink of an eye. 

'Avoid fighting anyone from Intima, or associated with Lucius in a good manner, even if they are the worst of scum, don't you dare even touch the air they breath. Lucius will end you.'

That's what the Dark Elf king said to them before allowing them to leave the tribal regions. It wasn't a warning nor was it a threat, it was the truth, the cold, ominous truth.

Julius was picked up by a tribe member alongside Millie, whose nose was bleeding with bright golden blood, a signature of all elves whose blood carried mana alongside oxygen.

'Damn it all.. We should've been more careful-'

The elf's train of thought was interrupted, the ballistic elf yelling, convulsing rapidly before she shot an arrow that pierced through his skull, ending his suffering completely.

'The human boy's Sigil cut him. It drove him insane. We don't feel pain, but when we do, we usually go crazy. His family will understand.'