Strongest Incubus System

Damon woke the following morning with the unpleasant sensation that someone had placed a frozen stone inside his arm during the night. It was not exactly pain. The lines left by Vorn remained confined below the elbow, but they pulsed at slow intervals, following something distant that was not the Heart of Arven. The reaction had begun after he touched the plaque bearing the mountain symbol and continued even after Ester removed the object from the room.

He opened his eyes and found the doctor sitting beside the bed, watching him in silence.

"Do you not sleep?" Damon asked.

"I sleep when my patients do not try to turn every strange sign into an adventure."

"I slept."

"After spending almost an hour trying to feel the memory."

Damon became still.

Ester raised an eyebrow. "Your temperature dropped three times. I did not need to be inside your head to notice."

"I did not enter the memory."

"But you tried to approach it."

"I wanted to confirm whether Jian Yue was connected to Xue Lian."

"And did you?"

"No."

"Good. You failed obediently."

Damon slowly sat up. The room prepared for him was located in the old section of the mansion, far from the administrative wing and any underground passage. Elizabeth had fulfilled at least one of the promises made in Arven. The bed was large, the window overlooked the inner gardens, and there were no bells, spiritual marks, or ancient maps hidden in the walls.

So far.

"What time is it?" he asked.

"Almost ten."

Damon looked at her. "You let me sleep until almost ten?"

"Your body needed it."

"Elizabeth did not send anyone to wake me?"

"She did."

"And?"

"I sent them away."

Damon climbed out of bed. "You are beginning to abuse your authority."

"Beginning?"

He ignored her and walked to the small table where his clothes had been arranged. Ester had already changed the bandage around his arm and drawn new containment symbols over his skin. Three circular lines surrounded the wrist, each prepared to interrupt the mark’s advance before it could reach the shoulder.

"Has Jian Yue arrived?" Damon asked.

"Twenty minutes ago."

"Elizabeth let him enter without me?"

"She is asking basic questions."

"Did he answer?"

"He said he will only explain the reason for his journey when you are present."

Damon put on his shirt. "Another person with that preference."

"Perhaps it is your welcoming behavior."

"I am very easy to talk to."

"You threatened three prisoners during your first meal after waking from the coma."

"And all of them talked."

Ester handed him his coat but held on before Damon could take it. "You are not going to fight."

"It is a conversation."

"You are also not going to test his strength, provoke the other six, accept challenges, enter any circle, or touch any objects the group gives you."

"That became very specific."

"Because I know you."

Damon pulled the coat from her hand. "I will try to behave."

"That means nothing."

"It is the most you are going to get."

The room chosen for the meeting was in the new administrative wing, although Elizabeth had removed every employee from the corridor. Two guards remained outside, and Aria leaned near the door with a small notebook in one hand and a piece of fruit in the other. When Damon approached, she examined his face.

"You look better."

"Thank you."

"That was not a compliment. Yesterday, you looked dead."

"Thank you anyway."

Aria offered him half the fruit. Damon took it without asking what it was and ate as he entered the room.

Seven people were seated on the other side of a long table.

Elizabeth occupied the head. Celina remained to her right, surrounded by documents concerning lodging, entry records, and tournament registrations. Ester entered behind Damon and closed the door. Aria chose a chair near the window, prepared to record everything.

The man seated at the center of the group stood when Damon appeared.

Jian Yue did not look much older than him. He had black hair tied in a low tail, narrow eyes, and an expression far too calm for someone surrounded by guards inside the territory of an unknown noblewoman. He wore simple gray clothes with no visible armor, but Damon noticed that the fabric concealed thin plates across the chest and arms. A short sword remained attached to his waist, still sealed by a band placed there by Elizabeth’s guards.

The other six people varied considerably. Two older men wore worn traveling clothes. A short-haired woman had white marks across her fingers. There were also two young people who appeared close to Damon’s age and a small girl sleeping on her folded arms, completely uninterested in the meeting.

Jian Yue looked at the white hair, then at the bandaged arm.

"So you are Damon."

"That depends on the work you intend to offer."

Celina looked toward Elizabeth as though wanting to confirm whether that kind of answer was normal.

Elizabeth showed no reaction. "Damon, this is Jian Yue. The group entered Mirath four days ago, presented valid travel documents, and registered for the Founding Tournament. They refused to explain the origin of the symbol."

Damon sat across from the man. "They said you were waiting for me."

"We were," Jian Yue replied.

"How did you know I would come to Mirath?"

"We did not."

"Then why choose this city?"

Jian Yue looked toward Elizabeth. "Because the Baroness is connected to you, and Mirath was the most likely territory for your return after Arven."

Damon rested one arm on the table. "That means you knew where I was."

"We knew an ancient root had awakened in the west."

Ester became serious. "The Heart did not awaken completely."

"It did not need to. The first beat traveled through the underground currents. People trained to listen noticed."

Damon examined the white marks on the fingers of the woman beside him. They were not the same as Vorn’s. They looked like natural scars formed through prolonged exposure to intense cold.

"You listen to roots," he concluded.

Jian Yue nodded. "Some of us."

"Seraphine also claimed to understand roots."

The short-haired woman showed irritation. Jian Yue, however, kept his voice controlled. "Seraphine Valcair stole fragments, records, and bodies. She did not listen. She tried to force the world to answer."

"So you are better."

"I did not say that."

"But you thought it."

The young woman beside Jian Yue released a breath through her nose, almost laughing. The leader did not look away from Damon.

"You are trying to discover whether we came to take what you received from Xue Lian."

"It is a reasonable possibility."

"We cannot take it."

"Because you do not want to or because you cannot?"

"Because the inheritance would destroy anyone who tried to receive it after you."

The room became silent.

Damon looked quickly toward Ester. She was already watching Jian Yue more carefully.

"Explain," Elizabeth said.

Jian Yue placed both hands on the table, visible and far from any weapon. "Xue Lian divided her inheritance into three parts before disappearing. Memory, root, and body. For centuries, people found fragments, records, or echoes, but no one received all three parts at the same time."

Damon maintained a neutral expression. "Seraphine discovered that."

"She discovered part of it. She believed the three could be separated again and transferred. They cannot. Once the Heavenly Body recognizes the root and the memory accepts the same host, the inheritance begins forming a single structure."

Ester placed a hand on Damon’s arm. "How long?"

Jian Yue looked at her. "It depends on the host."

"That answer is useless."

"Months. Perhaps years."

Damon looked at his own bandage. "And what happens when it finishes?"

"We do not know."

"Excellent."

"We know what happened to those who received two parts."

Jian Yue pointed toward the woman beside him. She raised her hand, showing the white marks across her fingers.

"My sister, Jian Li, inherited a fragment of a secondary root and part of a body technique. The two began rejecting each other after three years. The cold destroyed her meridians from the extremities toward the center."

Jian Li did not seem bothered by the explanation. "I still have a few years before I lose my arms."

Ester stood and walked toward her without asking permission. "May I examine you?"

Jian Li extended her hand.

The doctor touched the marks, pressed two points, and observed the circulation for several seconds. "The damage is advancing."

"I know."

"And you continue using Qi."

"If I stop, it advances faster."

Ester remained silent, which indicated the situation was truly complicated.

Damon looked back at Jian Yue. "You came after me because you believe my body will begin destroying itself."

"We came because the symbol appeared."

Celina placed the wooden plaque on the table. "This one?"

Jian Yue confirmed. "The Open Door is the sign used by those who watch the paths to the Tomb of the First Snow. It is not the fortress’s symbol. It is the symbol of those who failed to enter."

Aria stopped writing. "That is less impressive than it looked."

One of the older men frowned, but Jian Yue accepted the comment without reacting.

"For generations, our families followed clues left by Xue Lian," he explained. "Incomplete maps, ruins, secondary roots, and creatures touched by her authority. We never found the true gate. Then, six months ago, every Open Door symbol reacted at the same time."

Damon became still.

Six months.

The exact period he had remained unconscious inside Xue Lian’s memories.

"You felt it when I entered the memory," he said.

"We felt a change. As though someone had reached the other side of a door that had always remained closed."

Elizabeth crossed her arms. "And it took you six months to find him."

"We did not know his name. We followed root reactions, rumors of abnormal cold, and records of a man who awoke with white hair after remaining unconscious for months."

Damon ran his fingers through his hair. "This is becoming inconveniently well known."

"You froze part of a mansion and entered mines during a conflict between two duchies," Aria replied. "Discretion was not your priority."

Jian Yue continued. "When the Heart of Arven responded, we were certain the host was there. We arrived too late. Seraphine had already been captured, and you were returning to Mirath."

"So you came to wait."

"Yes."

Damon looked at all seven of them. "Why did you register for the tournament?"

Jian Yue finally showed something resembling embarrassment. "We needed a justification to remain in the city."

"You could have simply said you were travelers."

"The arena provides lodging, food, and legal access to the training grounds."

Aria leaned toward Damon. "They are poor."

"We are economical," Jian Yue replied.

The sleeping girl raised her head just enough to speak. "We are poor."

Jian Yue closed his eyes for a moment.

Damon looked at her. "Who are you?"

"Mei."

"Is that all?"

She nodded and rested her face on her arms again.

Jian Yue continued before Damon could ask more. "We did not come to force you to travel to the fortress. Nor can we show you the complete path. But we possess something that belongs to the guardian."

He slowly removed a small bundle from inside his clothing. The guards moved, and Ester grabbed Damon’s shoulder before he could approach. Jian Yue placed the object on the table and moved his hands away.

Inside the cloth was a narrow, irregular fragment of white metal, resembling the broken tip of a sword.

Vorn’s mark reacted.

The root answered.

Damon did not touch it.

The vision appeared anyway.

For less than a second, the room vanished. The guardian in white armor stood before the gate, holding a sword whose tip had been broken. The missing section matched the fragment on the table exactly.

Damon saw Mirath again.

Jian Yue watched his reaction. "It recognized him."

"Yes."

"Then the gate truly opened for you."

"Not completely."

"But enough."

Ester examined the fragment without touching it. "What does it do?"

"It allows the host to choose a challenger."

Damon looked toward Jian Yue. "A challenger for what?"

"To prove that he controls the cold without belonging to it."

The words were the same ones connected to the guardian.

Damon felt his exhaustion disappear, replaced by dangerous attention. "You came to challenge me."

Jian Yue shook his head. "No."

The woman beside him raised her marked hand.

"She did," he said.

Jian Li held Damon’s gaze. There was no hostility, only cold and practical determination.

"My root is killing me," she explained. "If you truly received the Heavenly Body, you may be capable of separating the fragment before it destroys the rest of my meridians."

Ester immediately returned to her seat. "We do not know whether that is possible."

"Xue Lian performed transplants."

"Seraphine believed she did," Damon corrected.

Jian Yue pointed toward the sword fragment. "The guardian decides whether the request may be presented. The host decides whether to accept."

Damon observed Jian Li. The marks had already reached part of the wrist. The cold inside her was unstable, compressed, and resembled a smaller root trying to expand inside a body incapable of enduring it.

"If I fail?" he asked.

"She dies," Jian Yue replied.

Jian Li spoke immediately afterward. "I would die anyway."

Ester gave her a hard look. "That sentence does not turn an unknown procedure into a good idea."

"No. But it makes the choice simpler."

Damon leaned back in his chair.

The Tomb of the First Snow was not merely waiting beyond some distant route. Fragments of what Xue Lian had done had crossed the world and left people trapped by incomplete inheritances. Jian Li was one of them.

Seraphine would have seen a root to steal.

Vorn would have seen a body to study.

Damon saw a woman asking him to try removing it before it reached her heart.

"We are not doing anything today," he said.

Jian Li frowned.

"Nor during the tournament," Damon continued. "Ester will examine your meridians. I want every record concerning how you received the root, how long it took for the marks to appear, and what you have already tried. Afterward, I will observe the sword fragment without touching it."

Jian Yue nodded. "Acceptable."

"I also want to know everything about the Open Door families, the ruins you found, and why the name Jian Yue appeared in Xue Lian’s memories."

The leader became still.

Damon noticed immediately.

"So you know."

Jian Yue took several seconds before answering. "The first Jian Yue was Xue Lian’s disciple."

The memory inside Damon moved.

It did not open completely, but an image crossed his consciousness: a young man kneeling in the snow, holding a broken sword while Xue Lian stood with her back to him.

Jian Yue watched the change in Damon’s face.

"My name is not a coincidence," he said. "Every firstborn son of our lineage receives the name of the one who guarded the door after she disappeared."

Damon looked again at the white fragment.

The guardian before the Tomb might not have been merely a creature created by Xue Lian’s authority.

It might once have been someone.

Someone whose name was still carried by that family.

"You did not come only to save your sister," Damon concluded.

Jian Yue held his gaze.

"I came to discover whether the man who opened the three doors is capable of returning what our ancestor lost."

Damon felt the root pulse once.

Ester tightened her grip on his arm before he could answer impulsively.

He did not need to accept the challenge at that moment.

He did not need to travel to the fortress, touch the sword, or decide Jian Li’s fate during their first conversation.

But the next arc was already standing before him.

Not in the form of a war, conspiracy, or trap.

In the form of an ancient debt, a root dying inside a woman, and a name Xue Lian still remembered after centuries.

Damon looked toward Jian Yue.

"Then we have a great deal to discuss."

Outside, workers continued preparing the arena for the tournament, unaware that one of the participants had brought the first true piece of the guardian of the Tomb of the First Snow to Mirath.

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