The city didn't sleep anymore.Not since the beam.
Even at night, Base City 5 glowed brighter than usual. Patrol drones hovered along the skyways, scanning for energy fluctuations. Martial Association vehicles prowled the streets in silent formation. Rumors spread like wildfire — of awakenings, mutations, even divine punishment.
For most people, it was fear.For Aiden, it was noise.
He'd stopped trying to keep up with the news feeds. They told him nothing that mattered. The real truth was under his skin, in the air he breathed, in the rhythm of the world itself.
The Obsidian Edge was still dormant inside him, but its presence had changed.It no longer felt cold — it listened.When he moved, it pulsed.When he thought, it whispered back — faintly, like an echo just out of reach.
The System remained calm, its light softer now, more organic than machine.
[System Notice]Doubling Cycle: 24 hours remaining.Synchronization: 36%.Host status: Stable (fluctuating).
Stable. Fluctuating.The contradiction wasn't lost on him.
Every time his attributes doubled now, the world itself seemed to react — slight distortions in space, faint ripples that his comprehension could see. The very air bent differently around him.
He didn't need to test his strength to know it was terrifying.He could feel it humming in every breath.
And with every cycle, it grew harder to contain.
He'd started to notice the side effects, too.The lights in his room dimmed when he trained.Screens flickered when he walked too close.The air around him occasionally distorted, like heat haze, even when the temperature was cold.
At first, he thought it was the System's fault.But one night, he realized it wasn't.
It was him.
His spirit energy was too dense — so dense that it warped the flow of energy in his surroundings.He'd surpassed what the world was designed to hold.
Meanwhile, far above the atmosphere, the Martial Alliance Observation Probe continued its silent vigil.
But it wasn't alone anymore.
At the very edge of Blue Star's gravitational field, something else stirred — faint, translucent shapes moving through dimensions just beyond sight.They weren't ships. They weren't alive in the human sense.They were Watchers — entities that existed in higher layers of reality, where time folded and observation shaped existence.
To them, Aiden's awakening wasn't a mystery. It was a signal.And signals demanded witnesses.
Their presence didn't disturb the physical world. Not yet.But where they drifted, gravity shivered, and the stars dimmed slightly — as if reality itself made room for them.
One of them spoke — though not with words. The sound was like thoughts scraping against glass.
"It has begun again."
Another responded, its voice layered and cold.
"The Node awakens, and with it, the System stirs. The pattern matches the one before the Collapse."
"Do we intervene?"
A pause — long, infinite.
"No. We watch. If the Successor endures, the Verse will correct itself. If he fails… we seal the breach."
Their voices faded, but the weight of their presence lingered.
Below, on Blue Star, Aiden shivered without knowing why.
The next day, Aiden skipped school again.Not because he didn't care — but because normalcy had become impossible.
He walked through the empty industrial district near the city wall. The buildings there were mostly abandoned — relics of pre-Calamity factories and warehouses. It was the perfect place to be alone.
The air outside the dome was clearer here.He could see the faint shimmer of the dome barrier above, the slow drift of clouds tinted orange by the evening sun.
He took a deep breath and summoned the Obsidian Edge.
It appeared instantly — a streak of darkness forming into a blade, silent but heavy, absorbing all light around it.
He didn't swing it.He just listened.
The weapon vibrated faintly, harmonizing with the hum beneath the earth — the Core's distant heartbeat.He felt energy rising from the ground, threading into him through invisible roots.For the first time, he understood the connection clearly.
The Core was feeding him.And through him, it was growing stronger.
This is symbiosis, he thought. Not control.
But the realization brought no comfort.If the Core was alive… what did it want?
The System answered before he could ask aloud.
[System Synchronization Increase: 38% → 42%][Host and Core resonance now permanent.][Caution: Irreversible state achieved.]
He froze.Irreversible.That meant there was no separating them now.
If the Core was destroyed, he would die with it.If it ascended… he would go wherever it went.
The weight of that truth settled slowly in his chest.
Then, for the first time in days, something external reached out to him.
The sky flickered.
Not light — but space itself. The air rippled, and faint motes of silver light fell like dust.Aiden looked up. Through the haze of the dome, a point of light blinked — too bright, too focused to be a star.
He felt it before he saw it.Something was watching him.
He narrowed his eyes, focusing his Spirit perception outward — a technique he'd barely learned from the Infinite Comprehension. The world sharpened. The dome vanished from his awareness, and for the briefest moment, he saw beyond it.
A construct hung in orbit — a long, silver shape with faint runes glowing across its hull. It wasn't alive, but it radiated awareness.
That's not human.
The instant the thought formed, the construct shifted — not physically, but dimensionally. His perception blurred as it folded back into invisibility.
But before it vanished completely, a whisper brushed against his consciousness.
"Successor detected."
Aiden stumbled back, breath catching in his throat. His vision snapped back to normal.
The dome shimmered as though nothing had happened.
Successor…?
He gritted his teeth, forcing his heartbeat to slow. "What the hell are you people talking about?"
No answer came.
Only the System's faint, delayed response:
[External observation confirmed.][Classification: Non-native entities.][Recommendation: Increase synchronization speed.]
Non-native… watchers.
He clenched his fists, the faint hum of power coiling in his veins. The world felt fragile suddenly — like glass beneath his feet.
He'd thought he was the only one changing.But now he realized something terrifying: the universe was watching back.
Deep beneath Base City 5, Captain Nyra watched the black sphere pulse again.But this time, she noticed something new — faint cracks of silver light webbing across its surface.
"Ma'am?" her lieutenant said quietly. "It's changing form."
Nyra didn't answer immediately.Her sensors couldn't read the energy levels anymore. They exceeded measurable thresholds.
Finally, she said, "It's responding to something… up there."
She turned her gaze toward the ceiling — toward the world above — and for the first time since she'd joined the Association, she felt fear.
That night, as Aiden returned home, the world felt strangely hollow.The city lights flickered slower, the hum of engines seemed distant. It wasn't the city that was changing — it was his perception.
Everything looked… layered. Like a reflection stretched across dimensions.
When he blinked, he could almost see through it — faint silhouettes standing just beyond the edges of reality, watching him with eyes of light.
So this is what the Watchers see.
The thought chilled him, but it also grounded him.
If he was being observed, then he wasn't lost.He was meant to be here.
He closed his eyes, and the whispers faded. The System pulsed softly.
[Doubling Cycle Complete.]Physique: 104,857.6 | Spirit: 104,857.6[Warning: Reality distortion threshold approaching 0.2%]
Aiden opened his eyes again and smiled faintly — calm, resolute, unafraid.
"If the universe wants to watch," he said quietly, "then it better be ready for the show."
Above the dome, the Watchers drifted silently.And for the first time in eons, one of them smiled back.