Chapter 244 - The Inheritance! Light NSFW!

{15th July 1992}

{Rigel's POV}

We stood very still for the length of three breaths, soaking in the room.

It smelled faintly of pressed paper and old oil; the air felt cleaner than it had any right to be. The chamber itself was not grand—barely wider than a storage room and not much deeper—its walls swallowed by bookshelves carved straight into the rock. No bound books rested in the crevices, instead, neat rows of scrolls set in tubes, rolls of parchment in dried leather sheaths, each tied with a cord and a small stamped seal. There was also a low table and a simple chair waiting at the corner like an invitation to sit and read.

"Walk over to the wall," Nalini said, voice low and labored as I looked at her flushed face. I had stopped bullying her, but the effects of my skills were still prevalent. Her mana hummed steadily as she motioned toward the scrolls and parchments. They were all encased within a layer of mana, likely a preservation charm.

"You read," I murmured as I shifted slightly, causing her breath to hitch slightly as I moved again. This time, I didn't force her to hump my cock as I was also curious about what was written here. My hands stayed on her ass, supporting her as she carefully reached one of the shelves without shifting our body weight too much. The door was already closed behind us, and we had some privacy.

Nalini chose the nearest alcove—top row, left edge—as if obeying an old superstition about where to begin. Her fingers hovered over the leather ties, hesitating for just a moment, then selected a roll marked by a simple sigil: a circle ringed by smaller points, like a stylized sun.

She worked the knot with care and unfurled the parchment over her forearm. The mana holding the preservation charm didn't break like I expected it to; instead, it simply molded itself onto the parchment. Her eyes flowed through the script for a moment before she frowned.

"What?" I asked.

"It's the script," she said, a flash of irritation breaking her careful tone. "Parselscript. I'll only see shapes and scribbles. You'll have to read."

She tipped the parchment toward me, then, after a heartbeat's calculation, leaned back until there was space to lay it across her chest like a desk between us. My eyes drifted to her rock-hard nipples as her position meant I was digging deeper into her folds, her closed eyes and pressed lips told me all about what she was feeling.

I let my eyes settle over the parchment, reading the title out loud, "On the Topology of Mana Cores and Pathways: A Comparative Inquiry across lineages."

"Good," she breathed. "Read. I'll catch what I can from your voice, and the rest we'll take from memory later."

I understood what she meant, as her glazed eyes and rhythmic clenching meant she was having trouble staying focused.

The first section was an introduction to terminology I was not familiar with, yet understood just the same; it was a mapmaker's hand applied to the mana core. It spoke of cores not as spheres but as a dense collection of knots in a living weave, centers of pressure and pattern that differed subtly between individuals and systematically between lineages. Pathways—veins, if you prefer the bodily metaphor—are distributed, recycled, and rebalanced, widening not with mere use but with use in rhythm of a successful spell.

Nalini made a small sound in her throat that might have been surprise. "There are some remnants of these concepts remaining, but nothing this detailed," she said, thinly awed. "Especially nothing like a study comparing lineages, as that could not be done in today's age."

'He gives me a mad scientist vibe.'

I kept reading. "Section two: lineage signatures." The diagrams shifted. The Vaishnav signatures presented as layered gyres: capacity that could be partitioned and recombined without losing coherence—an anatomy for the legend of avatars. The Shaiv-line was rendered as a core that could split its phase—not its substance—briefly, a way to 'turn' mana destructive by changing the timing of its release. The Brahm-line was the strangest: the core proper looked small, deliberate; around it sat a secondary matrix, a 'ledger' that could hold borrowed patterns and then fold them back into the main weave.

Nalini's breath hitched. I felt the echo of her surprise through her mana, but she didn't say anything, her emotions tumbled as she motioned for me to go on. 

'Who the fuck are these lineages? I haven't heard anything about them.'

The third section leapt oceans. "British families," I read, the scribe switching to a comparative tone. "Potter-line cores biased toward boundary magic and transformation—protection, anchoring, transforming—achieving stability by an easier sense of manipulating mass. Peverell signatures are prone to 'hollow' cores that can more effectively absorb foreign patterns without rejection—dangerous, potent, and very effective for runecrafting. Black-line had a vector preference toward astral attunements, spells related to astral magic, and curses tend to easily imprint through their cores."

Nalini's eyes flicked to my face at that last line. I kept mine on the parchment.

I looked through a few more Lineages, but some were missing, Gaunt among them. Greek lineages followed the next section. "Aspect resonance recorded," I translated. "Cores attuned toward concepts like sea, sky, craft, hearth, earth—their cores had a stricter requirement on what magic they could perform. Wizards are trained to identify their resonance early. And train their whole life, embodying their concept."

"The Greek magical community is one of the ones that thrive based on how old you survive, and given how strong they get, they have always had a strong voice on the world stage," Nalini said. I did not know why she gave me free information, maybe she was distracting herself as well.

"Japanese," I continued onto the next section. "They have managed to overcome some of the limits of mana. By combining mana with another form of energy generated by their bodies when trained beyond the limits, this physical energy and mana flow entangle. This energy, called 'chakra', is another form of mana, but it has more substance and cannot change as easily; however, it provides their wizards and shinobi with an unprecedented advantage. They have managed to blend magic with movement. Overclocking their bodies to break the limits of human strength and speed."

'The fuck... that's from Naruto, no?' I paused as I took this section in, looking down at my rotating core and the mana pathways, comparing them to what I remember from the show.

'No way, right?'

"Is that it?" she asked, noticing that I had stopped.

"No, but the next section is about stances that are the basis of the Chinese magical community, and how they mold mana to control the five elements." She peered down at the paper but frowned, likely unable to make out what it was.

"You'll have my memory of it," I reminded her gently. "You don't have to be so stressed for it."

"I will, but we can't go through every parchment here, we don't have that kind of time," she muttered.

We moved more quickly after that, knowing we could only look through the room for so long. She selected more parchment from these sections, and I read. The first parchment was all about introducing the Bloodline present in each region, a basic index to training methods, warnings about forcing a core to behave like a lineage it didn't own, and small rituals  and their effects at trying to steal one of these foreign lineages. A whole section was dedicated to categorizing rituals he had tried and failed at, and those that had succeeded.

My attention kept snagging onto the only other mana source that didn't feel like a preservation charm; it felt a lot more alive, like a Horcrux or the book that led us here.

"I sense something," I said.

Nalini stopped reaching for the next parchment. "Where?"

"There." I nodded toward the table. "Behind the table. Lodged something."

We shuffled as she moaned at the sudden movement. Up close, the wood showed no clear seams, like a hidden storage space. I leaned forward, her back now resting against the wall, allowing her to see what it was.

"What is it?" I asked

"A book?" She guessed. "A leather-bound book dropped behind and wedged in between the table and the wall behind."

"Can you move the table?" I asked

"Fine," she said, and braced. " Move backward on three."

We counted. I pulled back. The table moved and the book slid down. As I looked at it, I noticed it was glowing. Nalini waved her wand as it floated up to her, and she caught it. She tried to open it, but it didn't budge. Her brows furrowed she looked at it.

"What?" I asked.

"Are you sure you sense something? It seems like a block of burnt leather to me." She replied with a frown.

'Huh... what?'

---

AN: As you may have noticed, I'll be basing some of the magical cultures around the world on other manga or anime, maybe even books or Mythology. The Greek mythology, like that of Percy Jackson, the Japanese shinobi from Naruto, the Chinese with elemental bending from Avatar, and so on. None of the characters from the original shows, like Naruto and Percy, would make it into the story, but some bloodlines would be present, though diluted to suit the power level of this world.