The crystal was cold beneath his palms.
Its surface felt smooth, flawless — yet the faint hum that vibrated through it was alive, like a heart beating just beneath glass.
Klein stood perfectly still.
Around him, the marble hall had fallen utterly silent.
The faint scent of ozone mingled with incense. Somewhere above, sunlight from the stained windows scattered across his crimson hair. The acolyte before him nodded once, signaling him to begin.
And then—
The familiar blue interface appeared before his eyes.
The Omnipotent System— A translucent blue screen, clear and omnipotent, unfolded silently before him.
[Analyzing mana flow...]
[Scanning meridian integrity...]
[Dragon Core Synchronization: 42%]
[Initializing…]
Klein exhaled slowly. The crystal's light began to shift.
At first, it flickered weakly — a medium glow, the same as Theodric's moments ago.
The acolyte watching frowned slightly, as if expecting something more. His lips parted, the beginnings of a polite reassurance forming —
Then the glow changed.
The orb flared, brightening from soft blue to radiant azure. The light surged in intensity, bathing the hall in a piercing brilliance.
A low hum turned into a tremor.
Cracks began to spread across the crystal's surface — faint, delicate, like spiderwebs of light crawling beneath the glass.
The acolyte's eyes widened. "W–Wait—!"
KRAK.
The sphere shattered.
The explosion wasn't violent, but luminous — shards of light scattering upward like fireflies, dissolving into pure mana as they rose.
A pulse of blue lightning burst outward from Klein's body, arcing wildly through the air. The marble beneath his feet cracked, fine veins spreading in every direction as if the temple itself was responding.
The air trembled.
The people did not move.
The wave of aura that followed rolled outward like an unseen tide — dense, heavy, yet strangely calm. Everyone who felt it could sense the truth of it instinctively: a raw, unrefined force that did not belong to a mere child.
Blue lightning continued to crawl around Klein's arms and shoulders, dancing briefly before fading into faint motes of light.
The System pulsed again before him:
[Mana Surge Detected.]
[Threshold Exceeded by 4,200%]
[You have Gained 25,000 Mana!]
[You have broken through into the First Star of Cultivation!]
For a moment, Klein could hear nothing — not the murmurs, not the gasps, not the awed silence that swept through the gathered crowd. Only the rhythmic hum of power moving through him.
The acolyte before him — the same one who'd presented the crystal — had fallen to her knees, staring at the shattered remnants in disbelief.
"Th-the orb… it broke…" she stammered softly. "It— it broke!"
The hall erupted into gasps.
"He broke it?"
"That's—impossible!"
"Only one other has ever—"
The head acolyte stepped forward sharply. "Silence!"
But the tremor in his voice betrayed him. He turned his gaze toward the high dais above — toward the elevated altar where the High Priest stood.
The priest's robes, white and gold, shimmered faintly as he descended the marble steps, his gaze locked on Klein the entire time.
A murmur spread through the acolytes — reverent, disbelieving.
"He's the second in twenty years…"
"Since Lucien Valemont."
Klein stood there quietly, chest rising and falling. He didn't feel overwhelmed, nor triumphant — just still. His hands lowered slowly to his sides, faint traces of lightning still fading along his skin.
He blinked once as his System flashed again —
[Mana channels stabilized.]
[Dragon Core harmonized at 43%.]
He exhaled softly.
Across the hall, Theodric's mouth hung open slightly, eyes wide with disbelief.
Klein turned his gaze upward, to the dais where the High Priest now stood — an aged man with hair the color of snow, his staff etched with runes that pulsed like living veins of light.
Their eyes met.
No words were exchanged.
But in that single glance, something unspoken passed between them — an acknowledgment, faint and quiet, like two storms recognizing each other across a still horizon.
The air seemed to hum with expectation.
The broken crystal lay in silent pieces at Klein's feet.
And far above them, the sacred flame at the temple's peak flickered — just once — as if bowing to a new presence within its walls.