Chapter 9: The Sovereign Rises
The moment Cian's fingers closed around the Memory Core, the world didn't just go white—it went silent. It was the silence of a vacuum, a total absence of sound that made his ears ring with the phantom vibration of his own heartbeat.
[Initialization Started...]
[Downloading Combat Data: Era of the First Dawn.]
[Overwriting 'Dross' Class... 10%... 45%... 88%...]
Images flashed through Cian's mind at speeds that should have liquified his brain. He saw a man standing atop a mountain of fallen giants, holding a blade made of frozen starlight. He felt the weight of a thousand battles, the muscle memory of every parry, every thrust, and every tactical gambit ever executed by the man who first tamed the Abyss.
Outside the digital storm in his head, Hargon sneered. "Playing with toys until the very end? Pathetic." He raised his heavy mace, the Morning Star of Justice, and signaled his battalion. "Seize them! Kill the women if you must, but bring me the boy's head. I only need his heart to power the Bastion's core!"
Thirty elite Heavy-Knights charged, their shields forming a wall of enchanted steel. Elara stood her ground, her silver armor dented and charred from the previous fight. She raised her sword, her breathing heavy. "Nyx... if we don't make it out of this... I'm glad I fought beside you."
Nyx didn't look at her. She was spinning her daggers, a feral grin on her face. "Save the eulogy for the Overseer, Princess. I've still got nine lives, and I haven't used a single one today."
Just as the first wave of soldiers reached them, a shockwave of pure, crystalline blue energy erupted from the pedestal. It didn't push the soldiers back; it froze them in place, their boots fused to the floor by a sudden growth of mana-crystals.
[Class Change Complete.]
[New Class: The Sovereign (Origin Grade).]
[Passive Skill Unlocked: King's Domain — All allies within 50 meters receive a 200% boost to all stats.]
Cian stepped out from behind the pedestal. He looked the same, yet fundamentally different. His eyes, once a simple brown, were now a shifting amber, glowing with the inner light of the Memory Core. The tattered clothes he wore had been replaced by a phantom raiment—a long, flowing coat of midnight blue that seemed to absorb the light around him.
"Elara. Nyx," Cian's voice had changed. It was deeper, resonant, carrying the weight of a ruler. "Step back. I've got this."
"Cian?" Elara whispered, sensing the sheer pressure coming off him. It was no longer the chaotic, desperate energy of a boy—it was the calm, terrifying power of a master.
Hargon laughed, a harsh, grating sound. "A new coat and a fancy title doesn't change what you are, boy! You are a peasant! A fluke! Kill him!"
The soldiers broke free from the crystals, spurred on by Hargon's command. They converged on Cian from all sides.
Cian didn't draw a sword. He didn't have one. He simply raised his right hand and snapped his fingers.
[Sovereign Skill: Blade-Rain of the First Dawn.]
From the ceiling of the cavern, hundreds of spectral swords materialized. They weren't made of steel, but of solidified light. With a single downward motion of Cian's hand, the blades fell. They didn't hit the soldiers randomly; they struck with surgical precision, pinning the knights to the ground by their armor without drawing a single drop of blood. It was a display of absolute control that left the entire battalion paralyzed and humbled.
"Impossible..." Hargon gasped, his face turning a sickly shade of grey. "That... that is the technique of the Founder!"
"The Founder wanted to protect people, Hargon," Cian said, walking toward the Overseer. Every step he took caused the ground to thrum with power. "You want to use them as fuel. You've forgotten the first rule of the Bastion."
"And what is that, you arrogant brat?" Hargon roared, swinging his massive mace in a horizontal arc designed to shatter Cian's ribs.
Cian didn't dodge. He caught the mace with his bare hand. The impact cracked the stone beneath his feet, but his arm didn't move an inch. The dark, authoritarian light of the mace flickered and died, smothered by Cian's superior mana.
"The rule," Cian said, his eyes locking onto Hargon's, "is that the Hero doesn't serve the State. The State serves the Hero."
Cian tightened his grip. The legendary mace, an artifact of the Bastion for centuries, began to crack. With a final surge of power, Cian shattered the weapon into a thousand fragments. The backlash sent Hargon flying across the chamber, slamming him into the far wall with enough force to crater the stone.
The chamber fell silent. The elite soldiers, still pinned by spectral blades, looked on in terror. Their leader, the man who had ruled the Borderlands with an iron fist, lay unconscious and broken.
Nyx whistled low, walking up to Cian and poking his new coat. "Well, damn. I liked the Dross, but I think I could get used to the King. Does this come with a palace? Because I have a very specific list of demands for my bedroom."
Elara approached more slowly, her expression a mix of relief and profound reverence. She knelt before him, her sword held flat across her palms in the traditional gesture of a Valkyrie swearing fealty. "My Lord... the Memory Core... you've truly inherited his spirit."
Cian looked at her, then reached down and gently tilted her chin up. "Get up, Elara. I don't want you on your knees. I need you by my side. Both of you."
He looked at the dragon-scale book on the pedestal. "This book contains the coordinates to the other Memory Cores. Hargon was just the beginning. The Abyss Breach is widening because the world's pillars are rotting. We're going to fix them."
[System: New Quest Goal Updated!]
[Quest: Restore the Pillars of the Realm.]
[Current Party: Elara (The Aegis), Nyx (The Fang), Cian (The Sovereign).]
[Next Destination: The Floating Isles of Aetheria.]
"Aetheria?" Nyx groaned. "I hate heights. And the people there are even more snobbish than the Princess."
"We'll manage," Cian said, a confident smile playing on his lips. He looked at the two beautiful, powerful women who had stood by him when he was nothing. "After all, I have the best team in the world."
As they began to make their way out of the cavern, leaving the defeated battalion behind, the System flickered one last message.
[Warning: The 'Queen of the Abyss' has noticed your ascension.]
[Relationship Status: 'Intrigued'.]
Cian ignored the warning for now. He had a world to save, and for the first time in his life, he had the power to do it.