NoGift

THE APOSTLE who had just been stabbed staggered and looked at the disappearing back of Argent Blackbourne. What a vicious kid. No wonder their master took a liking to him. He took a small rectangular piece of paper from his space ring and tore it. It was a magical tool that every Apostles had. If they tore it, the talismans representing their lifeline and were hanging inside their main headquarters would glow red. It would mean that their lives were in danger.

Not a minute later, Harlequin appeared in front of him. The man wearing a domino mask looked at him. "What's this? I've been gone for like, what, ten minutes? And you're already like this? You're actually even worse than that shitty prince. Well, you're also technically a prince so maybe that's why. Do royalties really suck this much? Or was it just you two?"

"He agreed. Argent Blackbourne will get the dragon sword in exchange for her mother."

Harlequin raised one of his brows. "He actually agreed?"

"Not willingly. That's why he gave me this wound."

"He stabbed you?" Then Harlequin remembered the scene when a seven year old boy was fighting against men stronger and bigger than him and mercilessly killing them. "Yeah. That's certainly something he would do."

"Can we please go now? So I could have this would healed?"

Harlequin only snorted. Then he grabbed the Apostle's elbow and both disappeared in an instant.

If Lei Feng and Viper were only a second earlier, then they might have been able to see that scene. Instead, what they saw were drops of blood on the ground.

The static in the air suddenly intensified. Fear, worry, and rage colliding inside Lei Feng.

"Those bastards. I'll f*cking kill them!" Viper shouted angrily. If they hurt even the tip of Argent's finger, he would boil them in a pot filled with poison.

The two dark guards, An Liu and An Qi, shortly arrived as well.

Then An Si dropped down from a tree and landed on Lei Feng's side. "Master, Lord Blackbourne is in the shore where we first arrived."

"Is he hurt?" Lei Feng asked in a hoarse voice.

"It doesn't appear to be."

Lei Feng only somewhat calmed down when he heard that. Then he immediately ran towards the shore, ignoring the other four. Of course, Viper wouldn't let himself lose and immediately followed.

----------

Argent's footsteps deeply imprinted on the sands of the shore. She looked towards the direction where the enchantment surrounding the Temple of Tian Long was supposed to be. Anger and frustration welled up inside her.

When she heard that the reason why her mother remained unconcious was because of someone's Gift, she thought that she could just try to negate its effect herself. Agreeing to their demands and then swindling them in the end. But when that Apostle said that her mother was not only sleeping but also having continuous nightmares, she had to think twice.

Even if she succeeded in nullifying the Gift, there was no way for her to reverse its effect. It's already been more than a month since Argent received that distress signal from her mother's bracelet. That's how long her mother had been unconcious. Sleeping and having nightmares each and every day. Facing your fears every single day and not seeing an end to it. That kind of mental torture was something that could break even the strongest of men. That's why Argent asked if the Apostle who administered that Gift to her mother could reverse its effects.

It didn't cross Argent's mind that the Apostle might just be lying to her. Because why would he? In the first place, he had no idea about her special constitution. If he did, then he wouldn't be so proud in telling her that her mother was under the effect of his ally's Gift. Because there was a chance that she could just negate it.

But even without the nightmare side effect, Argent would still think twice before making a decision. Because she was not sure if negating a Gift that was put on someone was under the parameters of her special constitution.

In the past seven years, Argent began to take notes of the limits of this nullifying ability of hers. It were as follows;

When an attack composed of Mana - i.e. fire, water, ice, etc. - was thrown at her, it would dissipitate the moment it touched her skin. When she touched a certain part of a person's body, the Mana on that part would temporarily stop flowing. The best example would be Viper. His Mana was being constantly converted into poison, that's why his skin was toxic. But when he touched Argent, the part of his body that came into contact with her would stop its Mana flow and therefore would also stop its convertion into poison.

When a person who possessed a psychic related Gift - i.e. telepaths and empaths - was near her, they wouldn't be able to affect her thoughts and emotions. The same could be said to those who had Gifts that could affect the five senses. For example, someone like Vixen who could produce illusions. No matter how much illusion she made, Argent wouldn't be able to see it.

In terms of objects and other things that produced Mana, the moment Argent touched them, the Mana flow inside it would stop. This resulted in Argent not being able to use any magical tools that were being powered by Mana. That's why it was such a hassle whenever her mother called them before using the defaro crystal. Because if she was touching the crystal when her mother tried to call, the call wouldn't go through. So she just always let Aurum or Felicia hold and keep the crystal. It was also the reason why she made her own light brain. Because sPhones were technically powered by Mana. She made it that way because it was much more convenient for the people here.

Argent was just glad that a magical tool like the space ring didn't need Mana to power it. The capsule technology she made wouldn't be possible if that was the case. She should really thanked the genius alchemist behind such a convenient product.

Those were the parameters of Argent's special constitution as far as she knew. Of course, she also tried to experiment.

When they were still in the Starlight Academy and Aurum was finally able to use her Gift at D level, Argent asked her to put a simple suggestion on one of her classmates mind. While Aurum did that, Argent held the hand of that classmate. She wanted to see if Aurum's Gift would work on that classmate while Argent was holding her hand. It turned out that it did.

Because even if Argent held that classmate's hand, what she only managed was stopped the flow of Mana on that particular hand. She didn't stopped the flow of Mana from Aurum to that classmate. So that what Aurum did could be negated. The benefits of her ability didn't extend to that classmate just because she was holding her hand. In short, her nullifying ability was not like a shield or a force field that she could just extend to a person. So that that person wouldn't be affected by other's Gift as well. It's effect could only extend to herself.

That's why Argent was not certain that she could really nullify the Gift that was put on her mother. If she hugged her mother and managed to stop the flow of Mana in her whole body, that would certainly stop whatever Gift was put on her. But then, what would happen if she let go? The Mana would just resume its normal flow. It's not like if she touched a person, she could extinguish the Mana they possessed. If that was the case, then Aurum would have long been turned into a NoGift. She could only temporarily stop it.

Then what was the point of Argent doing that? She couldn't forever hug her mother just so the Gift put on her would also be forever nullified. However, she was willing to gamble. Because there was still a small chance that she could remove it completely.

But then, she heard about the nightmares and that's when she knew she really had no choice. She had to compromise if she wanted to save her mother. But if those bastards thought even for a second that she would take all these lying down, then they were sorely mistaken. She would retaliate. For all the sufferings they caused to her mother, she would definitely make them pay a hundredfold. 

A sinister grin appeared on Argent's face. A plan was slowly forming inside her mind.