Years passed.
Kael Veyth grew, but Aerath’s sun did not warm him. The estate’s halls were a labyrinth of cold steel and colder faces. Lira, his combat instructor, delighted in his failures.
“Again,” she barked, as Kael collapsed for the tenth time, his practice sword clattering across the courtyard.
The training dummy loomed, its surface scarred by a thousand strikes. House Kaelthorn’s ancestral grounds stretched around them—a fortress of shifting walls and floating lanterns fueled by glowing amber cores. Soul embers, the servants whispered. Harvested from the Voidspawn.
“Your stance is slop. Your grip is slop. You are slop,” Lira said, driving her boot into his ribs. “The Arbiter wasted its breath on you.”
Kael spat blood. The metallic tang reminded him of… something. A flicker of red on a white handkerchief. A woman’s cough. Gone.
“I’m trying,” he growled.
“Try harder.” She tossed him a fresh blade. “Or I’ll carve the weakness out of you.”
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At night, the leveling system awoke.
It began as a whisper—a holographic screen only he could see, its text glowing crimson:
[SYSTEM INITIALIZED]
Name: Kael Veyth
Class: Swordmaster Scion (Novice)
Abilities:
* Swiftwind Slash (Locked)
* Soulguard Stance (Locked)
Resonance XP: 0%
Memory Bank:
* Mother’s Voice (10%)
* Emily’s Face (5%)
Kael recoiled. They’re using my memories as currency.
The Arbiter’s voice hissed: “Power requires sacrifice. Always.”
He swiped at the screen. It rippled like water.
“How do I earn Resonance?”
“Confront what you fear. Relive what you fled.”
—
At dawn, Kael stood before his father, Lord Veyth, in the clan’s sanctum. The air reeked of ozone and iron.
“You lack focus,” Lord Veyth said, pacing around a Voidspawn core suspended in a crystal orb. It pulsed like a diseased heart. “The system responds to resolve. You have none.”
“I’m doing everything Lira asks!”
“Lira asks for obedience. I require hunger.” He seized Kael’s wrist, forcing his palm onto the core.
Agony.
Kael’s mind fractured.
Memory: His mother’s hand, slipping from his. “Run, Alex. Please.”
The system flashed: [RESONANCE XP +10%]
[SWIFTWIND SLASH UNLOCKED]
Kael screamed—not from pain, but from loss. His mother’s voice, her touch, her name—gone. Erased.
The core crumbled to ash.
Lord Veyth nodded. “Better.”