Silence.Still heavy.
Neither of them wanted to break it.Even less to tell Kael.
One specter was already an inhuman trial.Two… a calamity.
How could they dare ask it of him?That's what both thought.
But at that very moment—
Kael began to surface from sleep.Slowly.Like a newborn opening his eyes for the first time.
Thana pressed her lips together.Her icy mask cracked.At the sight, she snapped.
Then, on impulse—
Thana lunged.Her elbow dropped.Square in the gut.Across Kael.
A sharp, brutal impact.
Kael jolted.A rough groan escaped him.His breath cut off clean.
Thana straightened,skewering him with a glare.
— Playing sleeping beauty…while we do all the work?
— Now that you're awake…we have to talk.
Kael, still lethargic,struggled to sit up.His eyes tried to grasp what they saw.
Behind him… someone new.He looked to Thana.
She shrugged.— Long story.I'll explain after.Not the priority.
A beat.Then her tone hardened:
— I have two bits of news for you.One bad… and one very bad.Which do you want first?
Kael, still in a fog,murmured:— … the very bad.
Thana shook her head.— Fine.Then we'll start with the bad.
Kael tensed.— Why ask me…if you're not going to listen?
Thana gave a disdainful snort.— Quit whining, princess.
She stared straight into his eyes.— The bad newsis that you're going to have to face…one specter.
Kael's face fell.Impossible.Not at his current level.
And Thana continued.— The very bad…is that it won't be one.But two.
Kael froze.This time he understood.It was a death sentence.
He stayed rigid.His fingers trembled in spite of him.
One specter…already impossible.Two…mockery.
His breath quickened.His heart hammered in his chest.
He lifted his eyes to Thana.A flash of rage and incomprehension crossed his gaze.
— You've got to be kidding me…That's a condemnation, not a mission!
He clenched his fists.His whole body quivered between anger and despair.
— Kael… did you forget why you're doing all this?
She drew a breath.Her gaze grew heavier.
— Honestly… if it were my choice,I wouldn't force you.
A beat.Then her voice wavered, almost imperceptibly:
— But don't forget the reason for your choice.I don't want you to suffer anymore.
She set her jaw.Her words cracked like whips.
— And yet…cruel irony…you have to endure this kind of sufferingto seal another.
Kael dropped his eyes.His fists still shook.
But he understood.Deep down.She was right.
Silence.Only Kael's breath rang in the stone.
Then Morpheas stepped forward.His chains scraped.His aura thrummed.
— I don't have all the answers.I don't understand everything about your situation.But… I can see one thing.You're not heartless.
He raised his eyes.— Then let me handle this.These souls.These fragments.I can gather them.
He lifted a hand.Black curls rose from the cells.Bluish shards, trembling,floated into the air.
Slowly, they converged on him.
Fragments floated in the air.Dozens.Perhaps hundreds.
Black shards,blue curls.All screaming.All broken.
Kael could almost hear them.A murmur of pain.An echo of nightmares.
Morpheas raised his hands.His chains chimed.His aura spread.
A dull wave.Deep.Like a colossal heartbeat.
The fragments shivered.Then… stilled.
One by one,he purified them.
Each shard cracked.The shell of impurity broke,revealing a core more clear,more pure,more dense.
Kael felt the vibration in his soul.A strange warmth.Both gentle and crushing.
His veins prickled,as if the Magia ran straight through his body.He breathed faster.His heart stuttered.
Thana watched, wordless.Her gaze followed the fragments' dance.She knew.This wasn't a mere assembly.It was something else.
The purified shardsdrew to each other.Fusion after fusion.Shard after shard.
The light shifted.From black.To blue.Then to white.A saturated white, almost painful to the eye.
An object took shape.A first artifact.Then another.Then another still.
Kael trembled.In each one he feltan animic density he had never approached.
But Morpheas didn't stop.He kept going.Pressed them.Forced the artifacts to collide.
The shock rang out.Like thunder in the gaol.Walls quivered.Stone wept.
Then… silence.A single gleam.Suspended in air.
Not an artifact.No.Something else.
A relic.
It radiated.A colossal animic power.Every one of Kael's breaths was saturated with it.He felt like he was breathing an entire sea.
His eyes widened.His chest tightened.He could no longer look away.
That relic throbbed…as if it were calling to him.
And deep inside,he knew.By itself,it could mend his cracked soul.
And more—
It could drive himto his current animic limit.A wall he had never thought to reach.
Kael swallowed.A shiver ran through him—half fear, half hunger.
He drew a deep breath.His body still numbed,but his motions… precise.
He sat cross-legged.Hands on his knees.His breathing steadied.
He closed his eyes.As Thana had taught him.
The relic floated before him.It hummed softly.With each pulse, his body resonated.Like a drum deep in his chest.
He entered cultivation.One cycle.Then another.
The Magia flowed.His inner flame aligned.
Then—
A jolt.
His soul tore free.Brutal projection.His eyes opened in another world.
Darkness.A veil without end.And at its center…
The relic.
It floated, immense,like a star suspended in the void.Filaments of energy streamed from it,linked directly to him.
Kael felt his soul vibrate.Every fiber twisted,binding itself to that pure core.
The connection formed.Violent.Inevitable.
He was drawn into it.
His senses burst.Sight.Breath.Pain.Light.
All his being resonatedwith that colossal relic.
The void swallowed him.His soul drifted, without body.He felt himself falling…without end.
Then the light surged.
An ocean of shards.Thousands of fragments whirled around him.Each one pulsed with a memory.A laugh.A scream.A heartbeat.
Kael gasped.Each fragment was a memory,an echo torn from lost souls.
He reached out.A shard shattered against him.Pain detonated.
He saw.A foreign life.A man in chains.A battlefield in flames.A promise never kept.
Kael drew back, shaking.But other fragments came.Relentless.They crashed against his soul.Flooded him with visions.
He screamed without voice.
Then, at the ocean's center,the relic revealed itself.
Not an object.A core.A black sun,pulsing with colossal energy.
Filaments spilled from it.They coiled around his soul,binding it by force.
Kael felt his inner flame tear.Then reforge.His soul rebuilt—repaired, yet remade.
Through those threadshe sensed a resonance.Not a voice.Not an entity.
Merely…a beat.A dull pulse.As if the relic had a heart of its own.
Kael grit his teeth.And understood:he had bound himself to it.From now on, it was a part of him.
Kael drew breath.Cultivation.Slow breath.Inner flame stabilized.
The relic throbbed.A heavy pulse struck his ribs.The world tipped.
⟡ [ Interface – System ] ⟡Object detected: Animic Relic (refined)Status: freeHost compatibility: HIGH
His soul slipped from the body.Projection.The void.The relic, like a star.
Threads sprang forth.They seized him.Cold bite.Slow burn.
⟡ [ Interface – System ] ⟡Soul ↔ relic sync: INITIATEDCause: high-intensity resonanceMode: astral projection
The threads drew taut.Kael's heart hammered harder.His breathing skidded.A metallic taste in his mouth—and yet, no body.
⟡ [ Interface – System ] ⟡Link progress: 32% → 57% → 74% → 100%Stability: OKAnchoring: permanent (revocable by host)
A dull pain.Then crackling.As if his soul split…then fused again.
⟡ [ Interface – System ] ⟡Animic repair: IN PROGRESSMajor fissures: smoothedImpurities: purgedResult: INTEGRITY restored
The light waned.The black returned, warm, dense.Under his astral skin, a new current.Heavier.Purer.
⟡ [ Interface – System ] ⟡Passive assimilation (sleep): UNLOCKEDEffect: slow, continuous absorption of the relic while resting/cultivatingConflicts: none detected
A thick silence.Then a deep, steady beat.As if the relic… breathed within him.
⟡ [ Interface – System ] ⟡Animic capacity: raised to HOST'S CURRENT THRESHOLDLimit reached: YESFlow surplus: redirected to RESERVE (relic)
The pressure eased.Threads slackened.The projection quivered, ready to break.
⟡ [ Interface – System ] ⟡Link consolidation: 00:— (duration unmeasurable)Recommendation: do not interrupt cultivation until full stabilizationRisks if interrupted: afterimages, vertigo, partial loss of assimilation
A breath.One last white flare behind the soul's eyelids.Then the soft drop back into the body.
⟡ [ Interface – System ] ⟡Synchronization: COMPLETEAnimic relic: LINKEDHost state: stableStatus: fit for sleep-assimilation
Kael's heart slowed.His fingers, resting on his knees, ceased to tremble.The relic now pulsed inside him.Rhythmic.Docile.To his measure.
It was new.Strange.Unprecedented.
But he could feel it.
His soul…had crossed a threshold.
A beat.Dull.Regular.
There, at his center.A heart.An animic heart.