CHAPTER 73: HE’S JUST THE SAME OLD MIKA AT THE END OF THE DAY

Yelena’s expression didn’t falter. If anything, it became even more serious.

"Yes..." She said softly. "It is basically playing God. And it’s terrifying. That kind of power isn’t just dangerous, it’s divine. It breaks the very foundation of how our world operates."

"He doesn’t need a blessing, Charlotte. He doesn’t need some divine gift from the sky. He can create his own blessings. Replicate existing ones. Modify them. Improve them. Invent new ones."

Charlotte gulped audibly.

"But..." Yelena continued, her tone shifting into something lighter, warmer. "Even though it is cheating in a sense...even though it’s unfairly powerful...it’s not something just anyone can do."

"You could give tens of billions of people the same ability Mika has...and none of them would be able to use it the way he does."

Charlotte furrowed her brow. "What do you mean? Is it really that hard to manipulate mana like that?"

Yelena let out a soft laugh, resting her elbow on the table and placing her cheek against her knuckles.

"Hard?" She said. "It’s not just hard, Charlotte. It’s impossible. Not just for you, or me, or the average person, but for everyone. Even if we brought together the greatest minds in the world, every genius, every scholar, every veteran blessed, and had them try to replicate what he does...they wouldn’t be able to do it."

She held up the glass again, tilting it slightly.

"Take this glass. On the surface, it looks simple. But it’s not. It’s made of billions and billions of atoms, each one bonded, arranged, layered in such an impossibly complex structure that even the world’s most advanced supercomputers would struggle to model it accurately. Do you know how precise you’d have to be to reconstruct something like this atom by atom?"

Charlotte’s face paled slightly, while Yelena extended the glass toward her.

"Go on. Imagine you had the power to manipulate atoms at will. Could you recreate this glass? Perfectly? Every atom in its exact place, aligned to perfection, bonded precisely? No flaws, no errors?"

Charlotte stared at the glass. Her hands twitched slightly at her sides before she suddenly slammed the table, eyes wild.

"No Mana! That’s insane! That’s not even remotely possible! Not for me, not for anyone! Even if you did have that kind of ability, even if every supercomputer on the planet fused together and tried it, it still wouldn’t work! It’s just, it’s impossible!"

Yelena’s lips curled into a knowing smile.

"Exactly. That’s what I’m trying to tell you. The ability itself, the power to manipulate mana at that level, it’s not enough. It’s wasted on most people. It would sit in their body like a locked door with no key. Completely useless."

She leaned forward slightly, her voice softening again.

"But Mika is different. He’s not like the rest of us. He doesn’t just have the power, he has the mind to use it. That beautiful little brain in his handsome head." She said with a wistful chuckle. "It’s something else entirely. That child was born with a mind far beyond anything I’ve ever seen. It’s...it’s inhuman, really."

Charlotte’s eyes were wide again, but this time there was something else in them, something like awe.

"So...it’s not just that he has the ability. It’s that he has the ability."

"Exactly." Yelena said with pride that her boy was so extraordinary. "He’s the only person who could ever wield it."

"If anyone else tried, they’d fail. But him...he looks at a structure, and he understands it. Not just its shape, but its language. He can read the code in things. He sees the patterns, the mechanics, the flow. Where the rest of us see chaos, he sees order."

Yelena leaned back into her seat, exhaling slowly.

"And the truth is, even I can’t comprehend how he does it. I’m no fool, Charlotte, I’ve seen the world. I’ve studied it. But that child...he’s beyond anything I could’ve expected."

"I don’t even know where he learned to understand the structure of things like this. How he figured out how to manipulate them. There’s so much I don’t know about what he’s capable of. So much that only he knows."

She glanced at the glass one last time, then set it down and smiled.

"But then again...." She said with warmth and pride. "...it makes sense. He is his mother’s son, after all."

"His mother, your Auntie Yuna was...a brilliant woman. The most intelligent minds this world ever produced. She saved us all once, like I said. Stood between the world and a threat so vast, so cataclysmic, that even I didn’t think we’d survive it. And she didn’t do it with raw power or brute strength, she did it with intellect. With foresight. With grace."

Her voice dropped a little, soft with memory.

"So it only makes sense, doesn’t it? That Mika, her son...would be just as terrifying. Just as brilliant. Just as beautiful. They really are mother and son, those two. The world has no idea what he’s capable of yet."

She smiled faintly, her voice quiet and reverent.

"And I think...whatever she gave to this world once...he’s going to give it again. But bigger."

Charlotte stared, her mouth slightly open, the glass still in her hands as her thoughts tumbled chaotically.

A boy who can play god because he knows how the world is written...She couldn’t really comprehend that.

"That’s not a blessing." She finally whispered. "That’s...that’s something else entirely."

Yelena looked at her with a proud, almost wistful expression. "Yep, that’s Mika alright."

She then leaned back slowly, her eyes now shifting from the fire in the hearth to the mischievous glint on Charlotte’s face. She let out a soft, intrigued hum and asked with a knowing smile.

"So, my little fox...tell me, what are you feeling right now about Mika? After hearing all this? After realizing he’s basically a god in human skin, walking around like one of us mortals?"

Charlotte blinked, lips parting slightly. The question hit deeper than expected. She sat there in silence for a moment, her breath caught, not out of fear, but awe.

Her childhood friend. The boy who’d run through fields with her, shared meals, gotten into trouble, laughed with her...had been hiding an entire divine reality beneath his skin. He wasn’t just some genius or prodigy. He wasn’t just powerful.

He was something else.

"I..." She started, her voice faint, then smiled, the corners of her lips curling wryly as she spoke more confidently. "It’s overwhelming, really, Mama."

"To think the boy I used to get scolding together form you for not doing his chores properly is...is something that exists on an entirely different plane from the rest of us."

"I used to think I was something special with my SSS-class blessing. Everyone did. But Mika...he’s different. Not just above me. Above everyone. He’s not climbing the ladder, he is the ladder."

She took a breath, then glanced at her mother.

"And honestly? It scares me a bit."

Yelena nodded slowly, expecting that much.

"That’s normal, sweetheart. It would scare anyone to realize the person they’re closest to has ascended to something almost divine."

But hearing this misunderstanding, Charlotte shook her head, and her expression shifted to one of playful irritation.

"No, no, that’s not what I meant, Mama."

Yelena blinked, confused. "No?"

Charlotte exhaled in exasperation, throwing her hands in the air.

"What scares me is that I was already struggling to get his attention! I’ve been trying everything to make him notice me properly, and now you’re telling me he’s out here writing his own god-tier spells and reshaping mana like he’s weaving reality?!"

"I have to put in more effort now! What if one day he just floats into some higher realm and leaves me behind in this peasant dimension?"

Yelena’s face went blank for a second, completely thrown off by the response.

"Wait...You’re saying you’re not scared of him...but you’re scared of losing his attention?"

"Of course!" Charlotte said with complete certainty. "Why would I be afraid of him? He’s still Mika. Still the dumb, arrogant, overly-proud weirdo who always is off doing his weird hobbies."

"...No matter how powerful he gets, he’s still him. That’s the boy I fell in love with. Nothing about that changes just because he can mold mana like clay."

Yelena stared at her daughter for a moment, speechless. And then, she smiled.

A real, full smile.

She reached over and gently patted Charlotte’s head, a gesture that made the girl blink in confusion.

"Good girl, Charlotte." Yelena said warmly. "You’re exactly the kind of person he needs around."

"Mama..." Charlotte flushed red. "W-Why are you patting me like I’m a child?"

But Yelena didn’t answer. She just continued to smile, a glimmer of pride in her eyes.

There was something deeply satisfying about knowing that, even in the face of overwhelming power, her daughter still saw the heart of the boy, not the higher entity he was...