Divine Beast Ascension

Chapter 5

Father and Son Chat

Oli stood motionless in thought, “What!? Wiped out his soul! And why are you acting like you do this every other day? But isn’t that impossible? Wait, Uncle Rathe and the panther mentioned something about not being mortal and being a divine beast, whatever that is. What does that mean?”

“Oli!” Ania grabbed Oli tightly, crashing his train of thought. “You had me so worried! What were you thinking? Wandering off like that can get you killed. At least my brother was good for something.”

“Hey!” Rathe chimed in only to get the cold shoulder.

“Never do that again! You know better than that. You’re only three yet your appetite to explore is stronger than I’ve ever had myself. You must control yourself and never leave your mother’s side!” Ania was in berserk mother-mode and rambled on about anything to keep her son by her side.

“But Mom… I’m okay, aren’t I?” Oli plead his case.

“That’s no excuse to wander off at your age Oli,” Dioro cut in. “With time you will grow and later in life you will be able to explore the world all you want, but for now, you have no way to protect yourself. Do you understand?”

Oli’s head drooped as his mother finally released him. “Yes Dad, I understand.”

“Good,” Dioro nodded and began to walk away.

.....

“Wait Dad, what’s a divine beast? And how did you kill that panther so easily if he isn’t mortal?” Oli asked in order to calm his confusion.

“Oh, where did you hear about that?” Dioro made no effort to hide his shock; anyone in the clan would be surprised to hear a three-year-old ask something like that?

“Rathe mentioned that the panther wasn’t mortal when the traded blows and the panther said that Rathe was also a divine beast. Does that mean you’re also a divine beast?” Oli’s questions wouldn’t stop until he got a satisfying answer.

“Well…” Dioro scratched the back of his neck as he pondered an answer. “Usually we wouldn’t mention this until you turn ten and coming of age, but I guess I’ll explain it now due to the circumstances. Walk with me.”

Happy to learn something that seemed so important, Oli followed Dioro at his side.

Ania, who wished to shelter him more, was somewhat heartbroken because deep down she never wanted her little boy to grow up.

Rathe chuckled and returned to check on the other gorillas. He wanted to make sure that no one had gotten hurt and take the chance to tell the tale of him scaring the panther away with a single punch.

Dioro and Oli wandered off, far away from the clan. Being out of hearing distance Dioro stopped and sat down cross-legged. Though Dioro’s sudden stop surprised Oli, he did the same and sat facing his father.

“Oli, before I explain what you’ve asked me. There are a few things that I want to ask you.” Dioro’s face showed that he too was confused about something. “Is that ok?”

“I guess, though I don’t know what I’ll know if you already don’t,” Oli replied.

“Oli, did you go through reincarnation?”

Oli’s heart stopped momentarily. “How did you know?”

“I’ve known since the moment of your birth. You see, I’m an expert in soul arts and techniques, so I could feel that your soul wasn’t that of a new born child but of someone who had experienced a lot of trauma.” Dioro’s understanding surpassed Oli’s expectations. “Originally, I planned to never reveal this to you, at least not unless you would someday tell us that you were a reincarnate. But I bring it up now because you’ve got me confused.”

What surprised Oli was how Dioro figured it out but was still confused because he didn’t think that there was anything more to it. Not knowing how to respond, Oli stayed silent and waited for Dioro to continue.

“If you were a reincarnate, I shouldn’t even need to mention the difference between mortal and divine beasts. Also, you’ve been far more accepting of us as parents than a typical reincarnate would be. I ask, how is that possible?” Dioro let down all his mental walls and let himself be vulnerable to Oli, in hopes of learning the truth.

“Umm…” it took Oli a few moments to think of a decent answer, “well, I’ve definitely gone through reincarnation, but I’m not exactly sure as to how.”

“What?” it was Dioro’s turn to be dumbfounded. “What do you mean?”

“My last life was very different from this one. I was a human then, not a beast.”

“Wait, you were a human?” questioned Dioro.

“Yeah I was,” answered Oli. “Wait, how do you know about humans when they don’t exist here?”

Dioro laughed to himself, “What do you mean? Of course, they exist. They are just scattered across the world in their own territories because humans and beasts rarely get along. Wait… why didn’t you know that if you were a human before?”

“Well,” Oli took a deep breath as he tried to wrap his head around all of this.

“Well, what?” Dioro was strangely impatient.

“Give me a second, Dad! This is a lot to take in.”

Dioro paused his interrogation when he remembered that he was still Oli’s father and this all began with him dodging Oli’s questions. This let Oli take a few seconds to cool down and stop overthinking.

“Okay,” Oli took his time to explain, “I used to be a human living in another world and there was no such thing as cultivation there. Life was harsh but I would always try to find a way to get through it, until one day I saved someone and died in their place. Then, somehow I ended up here as your son.”

“I guess that explains it for the most part,” Dioro took what he could get.

“How about we just move on from there and get on to you explaining some things, right dad?” Oli pushed the conversation along, not wanting to answer Dioro’s questions but never receiving any himself.

“Right, let me start from the beginning. This is the world of Dominus, named after its creator, and life is a constant struggle to get stronger and cultivate. You already know that when you cultivate, you’ll get stronger over time, but you don’t know the different levels of cultivation. Cultivators are divided into two classes, mortal and divine, which are further divided into three levels of strength each. The mortal class has the novice, adept, and elder levels while the divine class has the perennial, king, and god levels. A cultivator’s level is judged on how close they are to breaking through to the next level and ranked in five tiers: early, low, mid, high, and peak. Take your Uncle Rathe for example, he’s in the low tier of the perennial level in the divine class. In other words, he’s a low-perennial and a divine beast. That make sense?”

“Yeah, that helps a lot!” Oli smiled. “But what was that soul wiping thing you did earlier? It looked like you didn’t even touch him, but he still died.”

“That was because I used my soul to attack his and since he had never trained his soul before, I easily overpowered him and wiped his soul from existence,” said Dioro. “Know that soul training and cultivation are able to help one another but they aren’t one in the same. Soul training is rare nowadays and can let you sense and attack spiritually. Cultivation is training with the essence of the world and gathering its energy into a condensed core that will store all essence you ever take in. Essence can be used to extend a physical aura that interacts with the physical world. So, one is spiritual and one is physical, that’s why it can be very difficult to train both.”

“That’s awesome!” Oli yelled. “That must mean you’re amazing Dad! Are you a divine beast too, like Uncle Rathe?”

“Of course I am, I have to be as the clan chief. Plus, I’m actually stronger than Rathe and I’m still undefeated against him,” answered Dioro.

“When can I start training? I want to do both like you, Dad!” Oli was anxious to grow stronger, just like any other kid would be.

“Whoa, whoa, didn’t I say earlier that normally we’d talk about all this when you turn ten and come of age, remember?” Dioro tried to calm Oli down.

“But Dad.”

“It’s impossible Oli, your body isn’t developed enough to form a core yet so cultivation will just have to wait,” reasoned Dioro.

“And soul training?” Oli asked.

Dioro realized that the same logic of waiting to cultivate wouldn’t work towards soul training for his reincarnate son. “Umm… I’ll tell you what. I’ll give you some spiritual exercises that will help your spiritually energy flow and let your soul’s strength increase gradually over time. If you can master these small exercises by the time you have formed your core, I’ll give you some soul training techniques to help you out, deal?”

“Deal! But no telling Mom, okay? I kind of get the feeling that she doesn’t want me to grow up so fast and would get mad at me for sure,” Oli begged his father to keep it a secret.

“Good, then this will be our little secret,” Dioro tussled the fur on Oli’s head playfully. “Let’s hurry back, I’m sure your mom’s cooking up something good for the both of us.” Both father and son stood up and raced each other back to the firepit where the scent of freshly roasted meat filled the air.