Ravian’s soul did not return to his body gently.
It crashed into it.
His motionless body convulsed in the center of the room as though a bolt of lightning had struck inside it, and his back arched violently as his first breath rushed into his lungs. His heart contracted, stopped for a fraction of a moment, then resumed beating with a heavy thud that drove blood through his veins with enough force to tear apart any ordinary human body.
But this was no ordinary human body. This was the Void-Grade Sovereign Pride Physique—a body stronger than anything humanity could ever dream of possessing.
Then his crimson eyes snapped wide open.
Ravian saw nothing at first.
The ceiling of the room blended with the black mirror, shattered columns stretched across the walls, and his mother’s face appeared between the curtains for an instant before dissolving into purple threads. It took Ravian several breaths to realize that Bran’s corpse was no longer lying before him and that the palace collapsing around him had disappeared.
He had returned to his temporary room inside Viola Manor.
His fingers trembled against the floor before his hand unconsciously rose to the left side of his head. His fingers found his ear intact, unlike the one he had lost in the Nightmare World, but the sensation of the blade severing it remained embedded in his soul. Phantom pain followed above his ribs and across his shoulder, accompanied by the lingering sensation of two axes passing beside his neck.
His real body bore none of the Nightmare’s injuries.
Even so, his soul remembered every one of them.
Ravian planted his palm against the floor and tried to rise, but a second wave struck him before he could regain his balance.
Everything he had been deprived of inside the Nightmare World returned to him at once.
He regained his awareness of his true soul first, then his senses were flooded with power no longer confined within a temporary body resembling that of an ordinary human. His connection to his abilities, Records, and possessions returned, while the dormant Void within him stirred as though awakening from a forced slumber.
His Aura Core ignited, and his mana circles began to spin.
The room trembled beneath the pressure of both forces as they surged through his body simultaneously. The surface of the wooden floor cracked beneath his knee under the pressure of his Void Aura, while the papers resting on the table rose and scattered through the air. One candle went out, and the flames of the other two bent away from him as though fleeing from his very existence.
Shadows slipped out from beneath the furniture and moved toward him before stopping at his feet. Amid all those shadows, his own could no longer be clearly seen.
This was Void Shadow.
Every ability he had lost contact with inside the Nightmare settled back into place. None of them remained sealed, and no mist stood between him and them, but their simultaneous return made his body and soul seem as though they were struggling to remember how to function together.
Ravian gritted his teeth.
Absolute Focus organized his senses and prevented the power from erupting beyond his control, but even it could not make the return gentle.
A white window appeared before him, pierced by red veins with dark shadows creeping behind its edges.
Then a second window appeared. And a third.
Messages followed in rapid succession until they covered most of his vision.
[The emergency seal placed upon Sovereign Pride has been removed.]
[The host’s previous emergency state has ended.]
[Full connection with the host has been restored.]
[The state of forced spiritual isolation has ended.]
[Restrictions imposed upon the host’s abilities, possessions, and Records have been lifted.]
[Resuming interrupted processes...]
The messages paused for a moment.
’So the disappearance of my abilities—and of Sovereign Pride itself—was Sovereign Pride’s own doing, not the Nightmare’s,’ Ravian realized from the System messages. ’Does that mean the Nightmare only sealed our soul energy?’
While Ravian was still analyzing what had happened to him, something trembled in the deepest part of his soul.
Aura gathered at a single point within his body, while mana moved along separate paths around it. His soul was supposed to choose one of them, as everyone who reached this stage did, but the Sovereign Pride Path refused to allow either force to exclude the other.
Instead of clashing, both forces submitted to the same Path.
His Aura Core solidified, and the mana circles around it reached completion without coming into contact with it. They coexisted within a single body, distinct in nature yet subject to the same master.
[The Ninth Gate has been opened: The Gate of the Walker.]
[The host has successfully ascended to the Ninth Rank—Walker.]
[Host’s Path: Sovereign Pride.]
[The Sovereign Pride Path has transcended the traditional division between Aura and Magic.]
[The Aura Core and mana circles have been successfully stabilized and fully contained within the host’s body.]
[Ninth-Rank abilities are now available for use.]
Ravian drew a slow breath.
With every word that appeared before him, the turmoil within his body diminished. His Aura returned to its Core, his mana settled within its circles, and the shadows gathered around his feet contracted until they disappeared once again. The absurd lightness and balance belonging to his true body returned as well.
The ascension interrupted by the Nightmare was finally complete.
The windows, however, did not disappear.
The red veins running through them darkened, and a new line emerged more slowly than the messages before it.
[A record of external interference coinciding with the ascension process has been detected.]
[Nature of interference: The soul was isolated from the body and forcibly drawn into a large-scale Soul Mirage.]
[Phenomenon designation: Soul Mirage.]
Ravian’s eyes narrowed.
The next message appeared.
[Estimation of the creator’s rank has been completed.]
[Creator: Third-Rank Soul Refiner—Calamity.]
[Law employed: Mirage.]
Ravian’s breath caught as he processed the information he had just received.
The Third Rank.
Calamity.
Robert had been at the Seventh Rank, yet Ravian had still been forced to die, return, and plan every word and movement merely to kill him with the least possible effort. The entity that had smiled at them inside Evernight Palace, however, stood four full ranks above Robert and six ranks above Ravian’s current level.
’Robert, my ass. Even Karius, whose power had always seemed so immense and incomprehensible, was only at the Sixth Rank.’
The difference between them was not something that could be overcome with a combat trick or a surprise attack.
Had the entity confronted him with its true power, outside the laws that restrained it and within a world where it could kill with its own hands, Ravian would not have had enough time even to realize that he had died.
The final message appeared.
[The host has successfully escaped a Soul Mirage created by a Third-Rank Soul Refiner—Calamity.]
Ravian stared at it for several seconds.
The message did not say that he had killed the Calamity, nor did it say that he had defeated it. He had merely escaped.
Even that alone was an achievement worthy of recognition and remembrance.
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