"Let the seven realms know that I have adopted a son, and his name is Theras Prime."
The lord’s voice echoed through every corner of the hall. Every gaze in that vast place shifted toward the boy standing over Jagur’s still body.
And then, like a mirror shattering, the vision broke apart.
I blinked hard as the world around me twisted and pulled back. In the next moment, I found myself sitting on the chair again, my hand resting on the open book.
The eye drawn on the page stared back at me as if it were alive.
The scenes I had just witnessed replayed again and again inside my head. Theras Prime. His sword. His calm expression. His strength. And the lord adopting him. A single heavy question pressed into my mind, was that child the chained being I had seen before?
I wanted answers. I wanted to see more. So I tried to turn the page.
But the page didn’t move.
I frowned and pushed harder, but it still refused to budge. The book looked thick. There were many pages left. But no matter how much force I used, the paper didn’t even shake.
Confused, I tilted my head. "What...?" I muttered under my breath.
After a few more tries, I exhaled sharply and gave up. There was no point in forcing it.
I closed the book, slid it into my storage ring, and leaned back on the chair.
My thoughts remained restless, circling around one point, Theras Prime, the boy with white hair, red eyes, and ash-gray skin.
Was he really the one chained in that place?
I didn’t know yet.
But I knew I would find out eventually.
I pushed the chair back and stood up.
With a breath, I extended my perception across the entire secluded space. North was in the library, quietly reading a skill book. Steve sat cross-legged near the stele of law, deep in meditation. Primus was far away in the mountain range, locked in a fight with a beast.
Today marked the first day of the second month since we had arrived here, and I had already decided long ago that this would be the day I began my rank up to Transcendent.
I stepped back, rose into the air, and flew across the open ground. A few moments later, I landed beneath a wide tree whose branches gave a calm shade. I sat down, feeling the faint breeze move through the leaves.
With another breath, I pulled up the system notification that had been waiting for months.
[Initiate Rank Up]
I stared at it for a long moment, thinking about everything I had achieved in this space, my refined laws, the domain I had shaped, the skills I had polished, and the visions I had seen. The only thing missing was the mirror. The genesis rune as Anjee had said was nowhere to be seen and neither was the mirror. I did not want to waste any more time on that.
And I felt ready. Truly ready.
This rank up would give me a thousand-year lifespan. That part didn’t excite me much. What stirred something sharp and warm inside me was the thought of what it would feel like... to step into the realm of Transcendents.
To see the world from that height. To understand Essence and laws in ways I had only guessed until now.
I closed my hand slowly, gathering my focus. It was time.
’Yes.’ I mentally confirmed the rank up.
The moment I confirmed the rank up, a ripple spread through my entire body. My blood trembled as if boiling, and a deep vibration passed through every bone. I stayed calm, simply observing. It felt as though a limiter inside me, one I had never noticed, was suddenly released.
The change didn’t stop at my body.
The world around me reacted at the same time. The free-flowing Essence in the air froze in place, as if time itself had paused. Even the distant Essence lakes, always quietly rippling, became perfectly still. Then, drop by drop, the Essence on their surface began to rise upward.
All of it turned toward me.
The next moment, every drop, every thread, every wisp of Essence in the space rushed straight at me, forming a swirling tornado around my body. The sound was silent, but the pressure was immense.
The tornado tightened, and the storm of Essence poured toward my generator core. The violet Essence there devoured it all without resistance.
Power surged outward, running through my bones, muscles, and organs. Everything grew stronger, denser, sharper, more alive.
The tornado widened again, feeding me endlessly, and my body accepted every drop.
Then came the part I had been waiting for.
My perception, which I kept fully expanded at all times, suddenly shrank without my command. It collapsed inward so fast that I barely had time to react. In the next instant, I found myself standing inside my soul realm, face to face with my own soul.
I hadn’t been here since the day I endured the crushing pressure and sacrificed a part of myself.
My soul still lacked the arm I had given up. The missing limb was a silent reminder. Even so, a slow smile formed on my face as I stared at the thirty-three-foot-tall, one-armed figure that represented me.
I linked directly with its consciousness, stepping into the quiet, deep space of my inner self.
Once inside, I turned my focus outward, toward the Essence storm still flowing through my physical body. I reached out and pulled that Essence into the soul realm.
It churned like a flood as it entered, swirling through the open space. I pointed it toward the vast blue-violet ocean below.
The ocean, always calm and lightly rippling, suddenly heaved. Waves rose and soul energy began leaking upward, blending with the incoming Essence. The entire soul realm stirred.
The true transformation had begun.
I willed the rising soul energy to move, and it obeyed. The light-blue streams merged into my soul body, filling the empty space where my arm had once been.
But as the soul energy continued merging, something else happened. My thoughts began to drift. My mind slipped deeper and deeper into pure comprehension, Essence, laws, space, flow, structure. I felt myself drowning in understanding, losing sense of time, losing the edges of my own awareness.
This was normal. I had read about it.
Books mentioned that at the Transcendent rank, the true connection between body and soul finally formed. And only at the Saint Realm did the awakened soul become a true weapon. But the merging always began here, inside this quiet inner world.
A soul’s strength was measured by its height. Mine stood at thirty-three feet, already far beyond what most people could ever reach at this level... but not enough for me.
I wanted to hit ninety-nine feet by the time the transformation ended.
The benefits were too great to ignore. A connected soul was the reason one could see talent markings. It was why one could sense system interference. It was why I noticed that strange pressure during awakening.
But above everything else, a connected soul improved comprehension and Essence control.
The ocean below churned harder. More soul energy rose and rushed into my soul body. My new arm glowed brighter. My soul grew taller, inch by inch, then foot by foot.
The connection tightened.
My eyes slowly closed on their own as the flood of power and comprehension continued to rise.