I watched as my missing arm fully returned, forming itself out of glowing violet and blue light. My soul shone brighter and brighter, and its height kept rising, inch by inch until it passed ninety feet. After that, the growth slowed almost to nothing.
Still, I continued.
I kept dragging Essence from the world outside and forcing it into the ocean beneath me, letting it convert into more and more soul energy.
I didn’t know how long I stayed like that. Time felt distant. Only the flow of Essence mattered.
Then, suddenly, a deep tremor ran through my soul. I had reached the ninety-nine-foot mark. The ocean below stilled. No new soul energy rose.
Power flooded me in a way I had never known.
It wasn’t normal Essence strength. It was something far sharper, my sensitivity to Essence had exploded. My affinity had already been infinite, but now it felt as if a barrier I never noticed had been removed. It was like stepping from infinity... to something beyond it.
When I extended my perception again, it didn’t stretch outward slowly the way it used to. It spread through the entire secluded space in a single instant, as if the world simply appeared before me.
My aura felt heavier, almost three times what it had been. A layer of soul pressure now mixed with it. I understood immediately, I could have resisted that crushing pressure from the trial with ease now. My skills formed faster in my mind; even Psynapse Fracture felt sharper, deadlier.
But one thing shocked me.
The Essence lakes outside were completely dry.
North, Steve, and Primus stood at a distance, watching with tense faces as the tornado of Essence still wrapped tightly around me. I had drained every last drop of Essence from the lakes.
A thought formed in my mind. The Fallen... must have known I would need all of this.
I ignored everything outside and turned my focus back to my soul. With my senses sharpened, I could clearly feel the changes settling in.
One more benefit of having a stronger soul was obvious now, the ability to resist corruption.
The deathmist I faced when fighting the phantom had tried to twist both Essence and mind.
Anything that infected your thoughts or eroded your Essence needed a powerful soul to withstand it. Now, I felt like that kind of corruption would barely scratch me.
Below me, the vast ocean in my soul realm slowly calmed.
The violent waves faded, leaving only gentle ripples rolling across the surface. My soul floated above it.
In the depths, I could see the two remaining time runes glowing faintly and the lone memory fragment I had taken from Dante. They pulsed like silent reminders of unfinished paths still waiting for me.
I stretched out my hand, and the ocean stirred once more. Soul energy surged upward, swirling around me as if responding to my will alone.
A moment later, it froze into shape, forming a throne behind me.
It was a deep blue, almost like solid ice, sharp-edged yet elegant. My soul lowered onto it, sitting straight and steady, as if it had always belonged there. For a heartbeat, the whole realm felt perfectly still, like it was acknowledging my new strength.
Then I let go and returned to my physical body.
The next phase of the transformation was supposed to be the evolution of my body, but with my talent I had already crossed the physical threshold back when I was still in the Grandmaster realm. That was why I had killed Vaelix so easily.
Even so, I didn’t rush. I watched slowly as Essence blended into my flesh bit by bit. My blood carried a new brightness and vitality as it pulsed through every vein.
The Essence moved through my cores in order, first the generator core, then the null core, and finally the dawn core.
Right when it touched the null core, something unexpected happened.
The null core trembled sharply, and a sudden notification opened right in front of me.
[Mirror of Severance Detected]
[Bind?]
I froze for a moment, shocked.
The mirror... was inside the null core?
I hadn’t considered that even once. I didn’t know when it got there. Was it during the transformation inside the chained realm? Or sometime after? I tried to recall, but there was no clear answer.
My eyes stayed fixed on the [Bind?] message and the mirror’s name. There was no description attached, just the silent question waiting for me.
I accepted instantly.
The null core trembled again, and a sharp pain exploded through my mind. Before I could react, I was pulled straight into my soul space. The same mirror I had seen forming earlier now floated above the vast ocean.
A thin thread of soul energy shot out from my soul’s forehead, attaching itself to the mirror. In that instant, information flooded my mind, and the mirror glowed in the same blue-violet colors as my soul and on its surface reflected my own soul and the ocean.
I sifted through the knowledge pouring into me and slowly understood what the mirror truly was.
Anjee had been almost right when he said it might be a Genesis rune but not fully. The Mirror of Severance had appeared before in ancient times, so it wasn’t a newly-born artifact of the universe. But each mirror created by the universe was always different from the last.
And there could only ever be one in existence at a time.
Yet its main nature had never changed.
The concept of every Mirror of Severance was the same: Severance.
The cutting of limits.
Natural limits, artificial limits, anything could be overwritten by the mirror.
And the limit that would be severed... depended entirely on the user.
To power the mirror, I needed soul energy. The stronger my soul became, the greater the limits I could break. Difficult limits demanded more soul energy, while weaker ones required less.
It all felt strangely connected... almost too perfect.
The mirror appearing in the chained realm. The endless Essence I found waiting for me. The timing lining up exactly so I could push my soul to the ninety-nine-foot mark.
It was hard not to feel that someone, the fallen, had prepared this entire path for me.
The real question before me was simple. Which limit did I want to destroy first? Where should I focus the power of the mirror so that it gave me the greatest advantage possible? This wasn’t something that the fallen could control. It would remain my choice.
My mind raced through every part of my strength, Essence control, laws, physical power, Psynapse, my talent, null core and even the dawn core. Each one had a limit somewhere. Each one could grow stronger.
But I needed to choose the place that mattered most.
I let out a slow breath and willed the mirror to respond.
My reflection on the surface rippled like disturbed water and faded away.
In its place, a complex rune slowly appeared, lines twisting, connecting, forming something ancient and sharp. The rune glowed faintly in blue-violet light, reacting directly to my soul.