The Luminar compound was unusually quiet.
Normally, the training hall where footstep can be heard, Combat simulations, and the humming of celestial-tech weapons. But today, whispers replaced noise. Curious glances followed Joph as he walked past the trainees.
He had only completed one mission his very first.
Yet rumors had already spread.
The rookie who defeated a demon class entity alone.
Joph didn't know how to react. He still felt the phantom sting of fear from that fight… and the strange heat burned through him when the pendant reacted.
"Joph."
Lumina Captain Rhyell approached him, tablet in hand. "Follow me. We need to check your energy readings."
Joph nodded suddenly, the atmosphere felt heavier than usual.
They entered the Analysis Chamber a wide room with floating holo-screens and a platform lined with celestial circuits. Joph stepped onto it, and a pulse of light scanned his body.
The Luminars watched the result appear.
Then
Rhyell froze.
The technicians gasped.
"What… is this?" one whispered.
The holo-screen shimmered with data, displaying energy spikes far beyond anything a normal human no, even a trained Luminar—shouldn't possess.
"It's impossible," another technician muttered. "His output… it matches a Herald level."
Joph's heart dropped.
"Is… that bad?"
Rhyell shook her head slowly.
"No. It's unheard of."
Before Joph could respond, the pendant began to vibrate again softly almost like a heartbeat.
Rhyell stepped forward. "We'll be taking the pendant to the Armament Research Lab for examination. Don't worry joph. You'll get it back once we finish."
Joph hesitated, fingers brushing against the warm metal.
But he unclasped it and handed it over.
The moment it left his hands, the room felt colder.
Inside the Armament Research Lab
The pendant was placed inside a containment capsule surrounded a lot of celestial-tech instruments. Robotic arms, scanning beams, and holographic analyzers activated one by one.
Dr. Veylor, the head of weapon research, typed rapidly.
"Begin deep-layer scan. Cross-reference with ancient Luminar archives."
A beam of azure light swept over the pendant.
Nothing happened at first.
Then the capsule shook.
The pendant flared—crimson and silver symbols dancing across its surface like living circuitry.
The lights in the lab flickered.
Robotic arms froze.
Holo-screens malfunctioned into static.
"W-Wait! Shut it down!" a technician yelled.
Veylor stared at the readings, his voice trembling.
"No… don't shut it down. Look."
Where normal celestial-tech cores used simple circuit patterns, the pendant's structure revealed something else entirely:
A dormant consciousness.
A sealed intelligence coiled within the metal like a sleeping god.
Veylor whispered:
"This isn't just a relic.
It's… a living armament."
The pendant pulsed again, gentle yet aware almost as if listening.
The whole lab fell into silence.
Then the holo-screen displayed a message in ancient celestial script.
A script that hasn't appeared in thousands of years.
> "Bearer Verified."
"Awakening Sequence: Incomplete."
"Do not force separation. Return to the Chosen."
The scientists stared in disbelief.
The pendant… asked to be returned.
And somewhere deep within its core, something stirred something powerful, ancient, and still locked behind layers of dormant protocols.
Veylor gulped his saliva hard.
"Contact the higher ups," he said. "We've discovered something that could help us."