"For this part... I’ll go with Vanessa Eldrienne."
The instant her name left his lips, something inside Ruvian violently shifted, his Spellcore constricting as its mana flow suddenly fell into a completely foreign rhythm.
Mana surged through channels that had never responded before, and at the same time, the nerves and olfactory receptors buried inside his nose became far more sensitive.
The dense reek of Dark Mana immediately assaulted him, rancid and suffocating enough to churn his stomach, yet some unknown power seemed to coil around his heightened senses, dulling the worst of the stench before it could completely overwhelm his mind.
Ruvian’s nose wrinkled as countless scents that had once been imperceptible suddenly crashed into his awareness: blood, scorched stone, mana, sweat, even the foul, putrid stench leaking from Mamveth in the distance.
He could almost pinpoint where every smell originated.
’Ah, right... she has that blessing which heightened her sense of smell to a supernatural degree.’
Then, suddenly, something viciously constricted around his heart.
Ruvian clutched his chest as a suffocating weight sank into him, so oppressive that even drawing breath suddenly became difficult.
Loneliness seeped through him first, cold and boundless, followed by hatred so deeply rooted that his chest tightened with every relentless beat of his heart.
Beneath all of it was an even deeper sense of loss, that hollow absence left behind when everyone who should have been beside her was already gone. Images that did not belong to him flickered at the edge of his mind, disappearing almost as quickly as they came, yet leaving their pain behind.
There was also the guilt of being the one who survived while his family did not, and the quiet dread that one day... even the sound of their voices might begin to fade.
Ruvian’s expression slowly hardened as those emotions burrowed deeper into his chest.
Though strangely enough, none of it felt unfamiliar.
In his previous life, he had also lost family while he was still young, so he already knew that hollow ache all too well.
He knew how memories could resurface without warning, how certain places could wound you for reasons you could never properly explain... and how even the happiest moments could be tainted by the bitter thought of ’what if someone important were there beside you?’
Perhaps that was why this sudden deluge of emotion did not shatter him. He had lived with feelings like these before.
Though what surprised him was something else entirely.
These emotions were not fresh wounds. They were old scars Vanessa had carried for years, pain she had simply learned to live with.
Only after feeling even a fraction of it himself did Ruvian finally understand just how much strength simply getting through each day must have demanded from her.
His hand slowly tightened into a fist.
’You really are strong, Vanessa...’
Then, the familiar voice of the Editorial System rang through his mind.
[10,000 Plot Points have been deducted!]
[Assimilation completed!]
[Time remaining: (04:59)]
There was a reason Ruvian had chosen Vanessa Eldrienne for [Assimilation].
What he wanted from her was something far more vital: her Psionic Affinity and the mastery she had painstakingly forged around it. If this worked the way he suspected, then those two things might be exactly what he needed to tear Mamveth’s grip apart.
Of course, it was still only a theory, but several parts of the novel had already shown that Psionic Magic could affect the mind, consciousness, and even the soul.
More importantly, with the aid of [Omniscient Review], Ruvian remembered a certain Psionic spell capable of suppressing one soul while forcibly stimulating another, dragging the weaker consciousness back to wakefulness. (-500PP)
If he could use that spell on Julian, then there was a chance he could erode Mamveth’s hold, rouse Julian’s buried soul, and force enough separation between them to rip the demon clean out of that body.
It was still a gamble, and Ruvian knew it.
But compared to blindly attacking Mamveth and praying Julian somehow survived, this plan at least gave him a real chance.
For Ruvian, that was enough.
Then again, if Psionic Magic was truly what he wanted, there was one painfully obvious question.
Why Vanessa, when Ophelia possessed Psionic Mastery as well, backed by vastly greater Mana Essence, far superior casting prowess, and magical stats that utterly eclipsed Vanessa’s?
Ruvian already knew the answer, because his own body had drilled it into him in the most brutal way imaginable.
His previous use of [Assimilation] had been nothing short of outright torture, his bones feeling as though they were being pulverized from within while his brain burned so viciously that he had genuinely wondered if it was being cooked alive inside his skull.
Back then, he had simply gritted his teeth and endured it, but afterward, after taking Calyra’s potion, he finally understood just how much weight the System’s warning about repercussions truly carried.
[Assimilation] might allow him to borrow another person’s abilities, but that did not mean his own body was suddenly capable of containing that power without paying a price.
The wider the disparity between Ruvian and the person he assimilated with, the more violently his body seemed to rebel against the borrowed power.
It was almost like burdening a bone with more weight than it was ever meant to bear, because while a bone could endure the load it was built for, push beyond that limit and sooner or later, it would fracture.
His body, his mind, and even his Spellcore were no different.
Moreover, assimilating with Rosalin had already been agonizing enough, and the disparity between the two of them had not even been particularly obscene.
Ophelia, however, was an Archmage whose magical ability towered so far above his own. Just imagining [Assimilation] trying to cram that degree of power, experience, and knowledge into his current body made Ruvian’s face twitch.
’Yeah, absolutely not. I might actually drop dead before Mamveth even gets the chance to kill me.’
He drew in a deep breath.
’So let’s just hope Vanessa is already enough.’
==========
{}---『RUNEHEART』---{}
◇ Name: Ruvian Castelor
◇ Age: 17
◇ Spellcore: Tier 3
◇ Rank: Third-Class Magus
◇ Magic Affinity: None ([Psionic])
==[General Attributes]==
Strength: C+
Agility: C+
Endurance: C+
Vitality: C+
Perception: C+
==[Mage Attributes]==
Mana Control: C+
Casting Speed: C+
Magic Power: C+
Mental Strength: S
Mana Sensitivity: C+
Mana Essence: [13,250/13,250]
==========
==[Innate Blessings]==
- [Blessing of Thousands Scent]
==[Affinity Mastery]==
- [Pure Mana, Wind, Darkness (Advanced)]
- [Water, (Psionic) (Intermediate)]
- [Dark Mana (Basic)]
===============
Ruvian’s eyes moved across the [Runeheart].
His own physical and magical stats were already higher than Vanessa’s in most areas, so [Assimilation] had barely changed anything there.
The only real additions were her [Psionic] Affinity, her Intermediate mastery over it, and the blessing that had sharpened his sense of smell.
’So this is basically all I got from her.’
His gaze lingered on [Mana Control: C+] and [Magic Power: C+], and his brows slowly drew together.
Psionic Magic was not something he had ever used before, and the spell he intended to cast was certainly not some simple beginner spell.
The more he stared at those two stats, the less comfortable he became with leaving them as they were.
Ruvian clicked his tongue softly, then glanced toward Mamveth in the distance.
’Better safe than sorry.’
His attention immediately shifted toward [Mana Control], and without another moment of hesitation, Ruvian used [Powerscaling] and poured Plot Points into it.
Both values climbed rapidly until it finally stopped at B- — at his talent cap — refusing to rise even a fraction higher.
[You have reached the current capacity of Mana Control.]
[You have reached the current capacity of Magic Power.]
[Mana Control: C+ → B-]
[Magic Power: C+ → B-]
[9,800 Plot Points have been deducted!]
’Good.’
[Time remaining: (04:49)]
He dismissed the [Runeheart] and raised his gaze toward Mamveth once more.
Then, in a low murmur, he called out to the Guardian dwelling within the depths of his soul.
’Morvayne... bring me closer to them.’
──────── ✦ ────────
[Chapter 326: Psionic]
Plot Points= 67,700 PP
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