The chamber trembled.
Cracks ran like rivers of light along the blackened walls, and the runes etched into the floor surged with multicolored lightning. Kael stood in the center, unmoved by the chaos. His eyes burned gold—like a solar eclipse condensed into twin orbs.
The SmartCore window popped open again.
[Soul Circuit Protocol - 92% Stabilized]
[Warning: Entity's Vital Channels Are Expanding Beyond Expected Limits]
He gritted his teeth. This was not unexpected. The moment he absorbed the Nexus Seed in the previous battle, he'd felt something change—something awaken.
But he never imagined it would hurt this much.
Kael dropped to one knee.
Pain laced every nerve, and his skeleton felt like it was being reforged with fire and ice. Every breath came out heavy, ragged. But not once did he scream.
Not once did he cry.
He had long since moved past the threshold of agony. Pain was an old friend now.
"Almost... there," he muttered, slamming his palm to the rune-inscribed floor.
The chamber stilled.
The swirling energies coalesced into a pillar of light around him. Patterns, alien yet familiar, traced themselves across his skin. Each one burned a new ability into his soul, inscribing hidden powers he had yet to understand.
[Soul Circuit Protocol: COMPLETE]
[New Genetic Tier Achieved: Reality Cipher Initiated]
[System Request: Confirm Synapse Fusion with Origin Flame? Y/N]
Kael didn't hesitate. "Yes."
The moment he spoke, the fire that danced at his fingertips exploded outward. Wings of radiant flame burst from his back, but unlike angelic wings—these were forged from overlapping runes and glowing fractal patterns.
He could feel it. His entire being was being remade.
His SmartCore UI displayed new lines of information:
[Reality Cipher Level 1: Dimensional Threading Unlocked]
[Origin Flame Synergy: 1% Synced]
[Warning: Identity Mask: 'Ashen Ghost' Detected and Synced at 68%]
A smirk tugged at Kael's lips.
His new identity—the Ashen Ghost—was starting to form in the background, a secondary persona that could operate independently in other dimensions. The beauty of it? Nobody would connect it to the charming, silent student Kael back at the Academy.
He stood up.
The pain was gone. Replaced by power.
Limitless power.
The chamber door creaked open.
Standing at the entrance was Selene, her violet eyes wide in disbelief. "You... you fused with the Origin Flame and survived?"
Kael didn't speak. Instead, he walked past her, a trail of glowing runes flickering behind every step.
"Wait!" she called after him. "You're heading to the Rift Nexus, aren't you?"
He turned his head slightly. "I don't need permission to protect those I care about."
Selene's expression softened. "Then you should know... someone's waiting for you at the Nexus. Someone wearing a mask that looks a lot like yours."
Kael paused.
Could it be? The impostor who had been using the Ashen Ghost identity to cause chaos? His doppelganger?
That wasn't just a threat.
It was a declaration of war.
He reached to his waist and summoned the Echo Blade, now glowing with runes matching his newly awakened state. The blade responded to his thoughts like an extension of his will.
With a single thought, Kael activated his new ability: Dimensional Threading.
Reality bent.
His body shimmered, then vanished—flickering out of the chamber and reappearing mid-air above the Nexus battlefield, where thunder cracked and energy storms twisted the sky.
Standing in the eye of the storm...
...was him.
Or rather, the masked figure pretending to be him. Same posture. Same weapons. Same aura.
Only the real Kael knew the difference.
The moment their eyes met, a voice rang through the field—a whisper only Kael could hear:
"You've finally caught up... Sovereign."
Kael didn't respond.
He simply raised his sword.
The battle that would shake the multiverse...
...was about to begin.
The chamber trembled, the obsidian walls groaning as the air thickened with energy. The System Interface blared a single line in bright red:
> [WARNING: Multiversal Anchor Detected — Alignment Sequence In Progress]
Raizen gritted his teeth as the glowing sigils beneath his feet spun like clockwork, interlacing runes extending outward in a widening vortex. His body began to vibrate with latent power, and the symbols etched on his right arm pulsed in sync with the interface.
"This… this isn't just a relic," he muttered, eyes widening. "This is a stabilizer—one that governs an entire dimension's core laws."
Another window blinked into existence:
> [STATUS: Level Cap Lifted | Origin Rank Initialization: COMPLETE]
[New Trait Unlocked: Dimensional Sovereignty]
Suddenly, his surroundings dissolved into stardust, reassembling into an ethereal landscape of layered realities. Each layer was an alternate version of Earth, with twisted versions of people he recognized — his family, friends, enemies, and even himself.
In one, he was a king. In another, a hunted criminal. In a third, a soulless automaton.
> [System Message: Begin Synchronization with Identity Shard — CODE: "VALEN"]
His heart thumped. That name again. The name from his dreams. From the whispers. The name that didn't belong to this world.
Flashes hit him.
He stood in armor woven of stars, commanding a battalion of sentient constructs. He witnessed the fall of a world where humans had wings of light and fed on stars. He watched himself split an entire galaxy in a single motion, not with rage—but mercy.
"So, I was… Valen?" he whispered.
> [Correct. You are the last incarnation of Valen, the Sovereign Architect of Realities.]
> [WARNING: Memories are sealed to prevent overload. Gradual release enabled through GeneCore Ascension.]
The chamber around him shattered like glass. Reality rebuilt itself into a metallic corridor lined with observers in robes. They bowed.
"He returns," one murmured. "The Sovereign walks among us again."
He staggered, suddenly aware of a cold weight pressed to his chest. It was the amulet—once inert, now glowing with pulsing light.
The system updated again:
> [GeneCore Evolution: Phase III Initiated] [Reward Unlocked: Sovereign Protocol — Granting 3 Autonomous Skills]
Worldstride (Dimensional Teleportation)
Command Decree (Control over localized Reality Nodes)
Echo Blade (Condensed manifestation of past life's prime weapon)
A single portal opened before him. It wasn't technological. It was primal. Raw. And it hummed with familiarity.
"Where does it go?" he asked.
> [To where the Doller first emerged. To where this began. To the root.]
Raizen took a deep breath. This was not the journey of a warrior. This was the return of a god among men. Of a ruler awakening.
But just before he stepped in, the system glitched. A red glyph burned through the interface.
> [ERROR: A Nexus Entity is watching. Your presence has been noticed.]
Suddenly, the temperature plummeted. A shadow with ten eyes and a mouth stitched shut flickered into the void beyond the portal.
Raizen turned slowly, his cloak whispering against the stone.
"Then let them watch," he said coldly, activating Worldstride.
With a flash of golden-blue light, he vanished.