Chapter 11: The Second Gate — Shared Sight
The stone walls of the tunnel felt like they were melting beneath Rowan's touch. Every breath he took felt like inhaling liquid starlight, too hot and too bright for his human lungs to process. The Vacuum Core wasn't just spinning anymore; it had reached a critical frequency, a "Screaming Point" where the intake surpassed his body's ability to anchor it.
"Inside. Now," Seraphina hissed, her voice tight with urgency.
She guided him into a small, warded preparation room tucked away in the bowels of the arena. As soon as the heavy iron door slammed shut, Rowan collapsed to his knees. The Gold and Silver Lattice on his chest was no longer just a pattern; it was burning through his tunic, the light so intense it cast long, dancing shadows against the damp stone.
"I can't... hold it," Rowan rasped, his eyes completely lost to a sea of molten gold. "The core... it's trying to consume itself."
"Because you're still treating me like an external battery, Rowan!" Seraphina shouted, dropping to the floor in front of him. She grabbed his face with both hands. Her skin was ice-cold, but the moment they touched, a shock of static discharge scorched the air between them. "Empathy isn't enough anymore. You've taken the power of nine elites. You need my mind to help you map the flow, or you will explode and take half this academy with you."
The Awakening of Shared Sight
She didn't wait for his consent. Seraphina closed her eyes and forced her consciousness into the link.
Soul-Bind Level 2 — Shared Sight Initiated.
The world didn't just change; it disintegrated.
Rowan's physical eyes remained open, but he was no longer seeing the stone room. He was seeing through Seraphina's eyes, and she was seeing through his. It was a dizzying, kaleidoscopic overlap of reality.
He saw himself—a kneeling boy wreathed in dark-gold flames—from her perspective. Simultaneously, he saw her—a moonlit goddess glowing with a frantic violet light—from his own.
Then, the vision deepened.
They weren't just seeing each other; they were seeing the Mana World. The air was no longer empty. It was filled with "leylines"—glowing threads of energy that connected everything. Rowan saw the jagged, brown earth mana he had taken from the arena floating in his own gut like stagnant sludge.
"There," Seraphina's voice echoed directly in his brain, clearer than a spoken word. "The blockage isn't in your heart, Rowan. It's in your perception. You're trying to store the energy. You must let it resonate."
Mapping the Void
Under the influence of Shared Sight, Rowan saw the "Manual" of his own body. He saw the memories of the Saint-Knight Aris floating like golden shards in a dark sea.
With Seraphina's 5th-Circle precision guiding his "hands," Rowan began to move the stagnant mana. It was like surgery performed with lightning. They worked in perfect synchronicity—her mind provided the blueprint, his core provided the engine.
They began to weave the excess energy into the lattice. The "sludge" was refined, spun into threads of pure power, and tucked into the microscopic spaces between his cells.
As the pressure in his chest eased, a new sensation took over. It wasn't just energy; it was intimacy.
Through Shared Sight, Rowan saw Seraphina's memories—the lonely nights in the Valois manor, the fear of her own power, the moment she first saw him at the gate and felt the "Quiet" she had craved her whole life. And she saw his—the cold mud of the ravine, the sting of Lucius's betrayal, and the ancient, weary soul of a Knight who just wanted a reason to protect something again.
Their heartbeats synchronized. One thud. One pulse.
The New Vision
The blinding light in the room began to fade, retracting into their bodies. Rowan's breathing slowed. He opened his eyes—truly opened them—and found he could see the flow of mana in the very stones of the wall. He could see the pulse of Seraphina's blood and the exact frequency of her magic.
He was no longer just a "Vacuum." He was a Seer of the Void.
"You're stable," Seraphina whispered. She didn't let go of his face. Her violet eyes were wide, reflecting the gold of his own. The Shared Sight was still active, a thin, silver-gold thread connecting their pupils. "We... we've reached the second gate."
Rowan reached up, his hand covering hers. His touch was no longer feverish; it was steady, radiating a controlled, immense power.
"I can see it now," Rowan said, his voice humming with resonance. "I can see the flaws in their spells. I can see the cracks in the Duke's armor. They didn't just give me their mana, Seraphina. Through you, they gave me their secrets."
A heavy thud echoed against the iron door.
"Rowan Caelum!" a voice barked from the outside. It was the Disciplinary Committee. "By order of the Senate, you are under arrest for 'Malicious Mana Depletion' and the use of forbidden arts! Open the door!"
Rowan stood up, pulling Seraphina with him. He didn't reach for a sword. He didn't need one. He looked at the door, and through Shared Sight, he saw the exact point where the metal's molecular bond was weakest.
"They never learn, do they?" Rowan asked.
"Apparently not," Seraphina replied, a dangerous smile playing on her lips. She stepped behind him, her hand resting on the small of his back, feeding him a steady, perfect stream of silver light. "Shall we show them what the second gate looks like?"
Rowan didn't use a technique. He simply flicked his finger toward the door.
[Vacuum Strike: Point-Zero]
The iron door didn't break; it vanished, turning into a cloud of fine metallic dust that was instantly sucked into the hallway.
The three guards standing outside froze, their spears leveled at a void where a door used to be. Rowan stepped out of the dust, his eyes glowing with the combined sight of two souls.
"The Gold Class is over," Rowan announced to the trembling guards. "The hunt... has officially begun."