I stood still for a mont, staring at the glittering mound of aether crystals before .
A smile tugged at my lips—no, I was beaming.
This wasn’t like the ti Ebon tossed aether crystals like they were Halloween candy, scattered bribes for survival. No, this... this was different.
These weren’t gifted. They were earned.
A reward for unraveling the illusion, for pulling apart the threads of Malthorn’s fabricated dreamscape. This ti, I’d fought my way through the haze, the deceit, the heartache—and I had sothing to show for it.
More importantly... this was sothing I could use.
It was finally ti to awaken.
Yet, even in the midst of my private celebration, I could feel sothing tugging at my attention. A prickling on the back of my neck.
Soone was watching .
Turning slightly, I caught sight of Seren. She stood a short distance away, arms folded, a faint scowl painted across her face. Her crimson eyes weren’t just observing —they were practically glaring daggers.
I raised an eyebrow. Subtlety wasn’t her strong suit, apparently.
Suppressing a smirk, I walked toward her and stopped a few paces away. "What?" I asked, feigning innocence. "You don’t like the reward?"
She gave a flat, unimpressed stare. "Yeah... it’s lackluster at best. What do you want to do with these? I’m already at Mystic grade."
Her tone was dismissive, like soone handed a sword to a dragon and asked if it needed help fighting.
Mystic, huh?
I blinked.
That explained a lot—her strength, the way she moved, the confidence. It made sense now. But at the sa ti, it ant... she wasn’t that far ahead of , was she?
Thanks to the symbiote embedded within , I could already match awakened-level strength on sheer output alone. If Seren was at Mystic, then technically speaking... she was only one major realm above .
That realization sent a small thrill through .
Then her expression shifted—eyes widening slightly as if a lightbulb had gone off in her head.
"Oh," she murmured. "I get it now. You’re going to awaken."
I nodded, folding my arms across my chest with a sense of purpose. "Exactly."
She humd, acknowledging my words with a curt nod. "That would be for the best. It’ll give us more of a fighting chance... especially before we move on to the next challenge."
There was a pause. She took a slow breath, then added with a slight grimace, "He is a demigod, after all. Who knows what kind of twisted ss he’s planned next."
Her tone didn’t waver—not fear, not doubt. Just quiet annoyance. As if fighting a demigod was just another item on her list of minor inconveniences for the day.
It was insane.
She wasn’t even slightly afraid.
I couldn’t help but smile, watching her as she stared ahead, visibly unfazed. Whatever gave her that kind of resolve—be it pride, experience, or pure stubbornness—it was... admirable, in a way.
It was nice, knowing that there were people like her.
People who were selfish, confident, and unyielding.
I tilted my head with a small grin. "I won’t be much help right now."
I scratched the back of my head, glancing away. "But I can promise I won’t be baggage either."
She raised an eyebrow—then chuckled.
"Yeah," she said with a knowing smirk. "That’s for sure."
Wow.
She didn’t even try to soften the jab. She just outright agreed with .
Was that... was that really how she saw ?
I shook my head and smiled to myself in quiet amusent, the self-deprecation mixing with a bit of genuine fondness. "Alright then," I said, cracking my knuckles. "Ti to get started with my awakening."
She shifted her weight, placing a hand on her hip. "Do you even know how to awaken?" she asked with mock curiosity.
Her voice was laced with sarcasm, and that amused glint in her eyes was enough to raise the hairs on my neck.
I scoffed, turning away from her with exaggerated defiance. "Of course I do."
Not that I really did—but pride was a powerful motivator.
Behind , I could hear the soft giggle she tried to stifle. Not the cold, calculated sound you’d expect from soone dubbed the Ice Queen, but sothing genuine. Warm. Almost playful.
So much for being emotionless.
’She has a ton of emotions,’ I thought with a smirk. ’She’s just really good at pretending she doesn’t.’
I approached the hive of aether crystals, sitting neatly in the center of the room. The room itself was starkly different from the outside world, where decay and moss had taken root.
Here, the space was pristine—immaculate, almost untouched by ti. The crystals shimred with a pure, unblemished light.
The contrast between the two spaces was striking, and though the room looked untouched, I couldn’t shake the feeling that sothing was amiss.
Was it all just an illusion? A facade designed to manipulate my perception? Maybe it was just my habitual doubt rearing its ugly head again.
I exhaled deeply, shaking my head in resignation. I needed to focus, not get caught up in paranoia. This was my chance.
Sitting cross-legged in the center of the room, I closed my eyes and let the stillness of the environnt settle over .
The hum of the aether was undeniable, filling the space around like a thick, tangible presence. It had to be real. It was calling to , reaching out in subtle, invisible currents.
For the first few minutes, nothing happened. The crystals sat there, quietly pulsing with power, but I felt nothing. The room felt like a vacuum, as though I had been trapped in a bubble, separated from the world outside.
Ti passed. Seconds turned into minutes, and minutes into what felt like hours. Still, nothing. No feedback. No warmth or surge of energy. Just the relentless emptiness of aether that refused to interact with .
I opened my eyes, my frustration beginning to boil over. My breath ca out in a sharp exhale, my gaze snapping toward the shimring aether crystals around .
Nothing had changed. Every attempt felt as futile as the last.
I closed my eyes again, but instead of the familiar blackness of nothingness, I could almost feel the weight of the darkness pressing in.
It was oppressive, like a shroud, and the cold absence of anything that felt remotely connected to aether only heightened my frustration.
Why? Why wasn’t anything working?
Seemingly, even Seren had left. I couldn’t hear her faint presence in the room anymore. Maybe she’d grown bored of watching struggle in silence, or maybe she just couldn’t understand the process of what I was trying to achieve.
It didn’t matter.
The system—my system—was still silent. That bastard Malthorn had left a lingering influence here, not just in the dreamscape, but in the very air I breathed.
I could almost sense his presence, as though his smug, ethereal grin was still watching fail.
I clicked my tongue in annoyance. No. I wasn’t going to let this petty feeling of failure stop . Not now. Not after all this.
Focus.
I closed my eyes once more, my mind resolute. I needed to push past this barrier, to transcend the dull weight that was holding down.
I couldn’t feel the aether around , but it was there. I knew it. I could see the crystal formations, feel their subtle hum through the air, but when I reached for it—nothing.
It slipped through my grasp like water through my fingers.
I paced back and forth, my footsteps echoing in the silence. It was maddening. There had to be sothing I was missing.
Sothing I wasn’t doing right. I was so close, I could feel it in the back of my mind, like a spark trying to ignite a fire.
Asking Seren for help was out of the question. I refused to owe her any more favors. This was sothing I had to do on my own.
I needed to be strong, independent—no more relying on others. No more dragging myself along like dead weight.
The frustration surged once again, and I clicked my tongue loudly in irritation. Nothing had worked so far, and every attempt felt increasingly futile.
But then, it happened.
At first, it was barely noticeable—like a flicker of light from the corner of my vision. A tiny orb, glowing softly, floating in front of .
I squinted, trying to focus on it. Was it just a trick of the mind? A hallucination brought on by my own exhaustion?
But then there was another. And another. Small orbs of light began to appear, each one resonating with a soft hum, like they were calling out to .
Each orb shimred with faint energy, pulsating gently. The more I focused on them, the clearer they beca.
One in particular seed to stand out—a red orb, glowing with an intensity that matched my growing curiosity. It wasn’t interested in —no, that wasn’t it.
It was more like it was offering sothing. It wasn’t about choosing —it was about serving . Like an offering made for my benefit.
I wasn’t sure how I knew it, but I understood it instinctively. This was a gift, but not the kind I had imagined. No, this was a service—an alignnt, a connection that I had to forge.
Curious, I reached out to it.
And then I noticed it—there was a faint thread, a glowing line connecting the orbs. It was subtle, like a thread of light weaving through the ether.
The red orb resonated with the others, and they connected, one by one, until the entire room was filled with a network of glowing lights, each orb linked to the next in a delicate web of energy.
It wasn’t like I was controlling them—it was more like I was syncing with them, aligning myself to their frequency. Every orb connected, adding its pulse of energy to the whole.
And then, sothing clicked.
The orbs burst outward in a brilliant cascade of light, the energy flaring in an explosion of power.
I gasped as the energy surged into my body, flooding with an intense, rejuvenating force. My muscles tensed, my senses heightened, and my mind felt as though it had just been awakened from a long, deep slumber.
I could feel it now—the aether. It wasn’t just a physical presence in the room; it was alive. It was a part of , coursing through my veins, infusing with strength and vitality.
A grin tugged at my lips as I felt the rush of power surge through .
"I know what to do now."
I laughed, a sound that began as a quiet chuckle but quickly turned into a deep, rumbling laugh of exhilaration.
’Hahahahaha... Hahahahahaha!’
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