Supremacy Games

After the deal was made, Lady Yggdrasil spent a couple of hours with the primogenitors before exiting Felix's consciousness.

"Is it alright that she knows about Asna and that I own three perfect manipulations?" Felix asked with a worried tone.

"No need to worry." Thor assured, "Lady Yggdrasil is a neutral entity within the primogenitors cycle just like Cyclope. She has never fought anyone even during the primogenitors' era."

"Indeed, she is a pacifist whose main focus in life is to wholly decipher the Runic Codex." Jörmungandr added.

"Now that you mentioned it, what is exactly the Runic Codex?" Felix wondered, "Is it the runes used by the elves, sages, and talisms?"

"Not exactly." Lady Sphinx answered, "Runes that are used for spells, scrolls, and talismans are derivative from the Runic Codex."

"The Runic Codex is one of three known celestial languages in the universe." Lady Sphinx pointed at Felix's skin and added, "The language written on all over your body is the Universal Codex. It is also part of the celestial languages."

"Don't tell me the third one is the Divine Codex that is used by Cyclope and the dwarves to forge divine items and artifacts?!" Felix's eyes widened a little at the revelation.

"That's right." Lady Sphinx nodded.

"It is believed that those three celestial languages had a major part over shaping up the universe. Hence, the reason runes, cyphers, and codes, are capable of manipulating the environment." Thor added, "Oh, codes are referred to the Universal Codex while cyphers referred to the divine codex." 

Upon thinking about it carefully, Felix realized that their theory made a lot of sense!

Elves, sages, and talisms were capable of affecting the environment in their own special way. But still, the main source was runes!

Elves used wands made from Lady Yggdrasil sacred wood to write the runes in air, which would translate later on into a spell. This spell depended on which type of runes and structure was used.

Sages do the same but write those spells on scrolls, which could be used by anyone as long as they had a bit of affinity corespondent to the spell.

Talisms were in the same boat as they needed to write spells on Talismans...Though, only them could use those Talismans, and they also needed to have the same affinities as the spell.

As for divine language? It wasn't as far spread as runes since only Cyclope and the dwarves were capable of using it to bestow effects on their forged items.

In fact, dwarves weren't even touching the surface of the divine language due to Cyclope, who gave up on passing on his legacy to them when he was dissatisfied with their performance.

After all dwarves could only write it on Futharks to use its effect while Cyclope could write it on anything!

"When I first heard about Cyclope and his ability to create divine equipments, I always assumed that he is utilizing another version of runes." Felix remarked, "I have never thought that he was using an entirely different language."

"Your assumption can be excused since they do look alike in terms of wording." Fenrir said.

"The dwarves have named it after their ancient language so no one will lump them together with elves, sages, and talisms." Lady Sphinx smiled in amusement.

Since no one knew about Cyclope or the origin of the divine language, who wouldn't believe the dwarves?

It was the same scenario with witches. Everyone believed them to be the founders of potion-making while they were merely taught by Lady Sphinx.

Even the witches believed it since Lady Sphinx had no interest in putting herself in the open to claim credit.

"How much difference is there, though?" Felix wondered.

"Well, runes are more rigid since you need a specific wording structure to create a spell. On the other hand, divine language allows you to add even the details of a spell." lady Sphinx clarified, "For example, you can write that I want a spell to explode three times and each time the power gets increased."

"For runes, you can't do that. But at the same time, you aren't required to engrave them on objects to use such spells."

"Don't forget that the divine language can't bring out the potential of its spells if the materials it was engraved on it was trash." Thor added, "Also, the user need to fuel those spells with the appropriate elemental energy to be used."

"So, that's why the futharks needs to be recharged!"

In the case of artifacts, the engraved futharks had to be refilled with elemental energy after they got exhausted...The only ones capable of doing were dwarves, which was quite troublesome.

Especially, for humans, who were banned by the dwarves.

But, in the case of divine equipments? There was no need for such trouble as the user was capable of fueling them directly on his own!

"So, there are advantages and disadvantages for both sides." Felix nodded in understanding.

In summary, spells from runes could be utilized only once, but they were flexible in their ability to be written on even air.

On the other hand, spells from cyphers could be utilized repeatedly as long as they were engraved on great materials and received constant fuel of energy...Plus, the codes allowed flexibility in the details.

"What about the Universal Codex?" Felix asked as he displayed his tattooed body.

"Naturally, the Universal Codex is one step better than both languages." Lady Sphinx explained, "We were bestowed with perfect manipulation to a single element, not requiring us to write anything to shape our environment."

"As long as we have trained our manipulation, we can do as we pleased with our element." Carbuncle joined the conversation.

"I understand as much, but what about your descendants?" Felix inquired, "Do you think they have the same Universal Codex written on them to utilize internal and external stages of manipulation?"

Felix figured out that the Universal Codex on his body was enabling him to manipulate his elements and without it, he would return to using merely bloodline abilities.

But, what about other races that were capable of manipulating elements as well?

He never saw or heard anyone of them talking about finding writings on their bodies. 

"Well, it's not proven yet, but we reached a conclusion that they must have some type of invisible universal codex written on a cellular level at least." Thor disclosed, "It wouldn't make sense otherwise that they can manipulate elements because of 'bloodline purity'."

"It seems like it." Felix nodded in agreement.

In his mind, if bloodline purity truly defined whether primogenitors' descendants could control elements or not, then there shouldn't be many elementalists in this current era.

After all, their bloodline was thinning with time...Yet, elementalists were popping on a balanced level across the universe.

"In reality, we think it's all about luck." Jörmungandr said, "Some gets born with universal codex on their DNA and some doesn't."

As long as they had a tiny bit of primogenitors bloodline within them, and they possessed intellect, they would have a chance of obtaining limited manipulation.

If they were out of luck, they receive merely some abilities.

"What made us more assured about our theory is when Lady Yggdrasil has found that some elves were born with runic writings on their skin." Lady Sphinx dropped a bombshell.

"Come again?!"

Felix's eyes widened a bit in disbelief.

He never heard of such a thing...In this open universe, it should be impossible for elves to keep this a secret!

"Relax, only the first ever born ancient  elves had those runic writing on them." Lady Sphinx clarified, "The rest didn't have them...Though, we believe that they were born with writings on cellular level too."

"Don't tell me the dwarves are also like this?"

"Yes." 

"What about their hearts of fire?" Felix asked with a bewildered expression.

"They do have it, but it merely helps them with forging equipment, not engraving the divine language on the futharks as they claimed." Lady Sphinx disclosed.

"Ahhhh...Lies, lies, so many lies!" Felix massaged his temples to ease his headache that resulted from having his entire knowledge about the universe get rewired yet again!!

Every time he felt like he already knew at least the general knowledge about the universe, another mind-boggling truth appear and make him rethink his life.

"Well, we knew that it would be hard for you to understand all at once, but if you are going to really learn about runes, you had to know the big picture of the universe first." Thor imparted.

"Well, I am still confused about many matters." Felix smiled wryly, "Like why don't other primogenitors learn divine and runic language? And how can only a few races are allowed to use them?"

"It's simple really." Jörmungandr explained, "Only Cyclope and Lady Yggdrasil were born with divine codex and runic codex on their bodies in addition to the Universal codex."

"They had invested their lifetime in deciphering them. However, because they could use just one element and couldn't unlock other ones like most races, it didn't change much." 

"I see..." 

Felix figured out why it wasn't seen as a big deal by other primogenitors...Universal Codex allowed them complete control over their element either way.

So, it was actually limiting to use runes or cyphers instead of just controlling their elements with their minds.

"Though, they are still different from other races." Lady Sphinx added, "Unlike them, they can write any kind of spell on either weapons or scrolls even if it didn't match their element...If they hand it to someone else with the appropriate element, they can utilize them."

"No wonder Cyclope could create many versatile divine equipment!"