The moonlight filtered through the high, arched windows of the training hall, casting long, skeletal shadows across the stone floor. Elena Valerius stood still, her breath hitching in her throat as she looked at her younger brother. To the rest of the world, Cian was the frail, bookish second son who spent his days buried in dusty scrolls. But standing here, in the dead of night, he radiated a presence that felt older than the Bastion itself.
[Divine Talent: Sovereign Tutor is Active.]
[Target: Elena Valerius (Sister).]
[Compatibility: 98% (Bloodline Resonance).]
[Initiating Soul-Link Synchronization...]
Cian felt a faint, ethereal pull at the center of his chest, right between his two glowing soul cores. A thin, translucent thread of cerulean light manifested, stretching from his heart to Elena's. She gasped, her hands flying to her chest as she felt a sudden, warm pressure behind her ribs.
"Don't fight it, Elena," Cian said, his voice dropping to a low, authoritative register. "This is not a curse. It is a bridge. Through this link, you will perceive the world as I do. You will see the flaws in your own movements, and you will feel the path your mana is supposed to take."
Elena stared at the blue thread, her Master-rank talent screaming at her that this was impossible. No known spell in the Silverian Hegemony could link two souls so intimately without the use of a massive ritual circle and dozen of high-grade mana crystals. Yet, here was her brother, doing it with a mere thought.
"What is this, Cian?" she whispered, her eyes wide with a mixture of awe and terror. "This isn't just Awakening. This is... something else entirely."
"This is the truth of our bloodline that the Empire tried to bury," Cian lied, knowing that the "System" was far too complex to explain to someone from this era. "The Hegemony gave us the 'Sentinel Breath' centuries ago, calling it a gift. In reality, it was a leash. It was designed to keep our family at a certain level, never allowing us to reach our true potential. Every time you breathe, you are tightening that leash."
Cian moved behind her, his hands not touching her, but hovering just inches from her shoulder blades. Through the link, he could see her mana circuitry as a complex, flickering lattice of light. In the area around her left lung, the light was muddy, pulsing with a sickly yellow hue that signaled a deep-seated blockage.
[Passive Ability: Structural Analysis is Scanning...]
[Sovereign Tutor: Initiating 'Correction' Protocol.]
"Close your eyes," Cian commanded. "Forget everything the instructors taught you. Forget the 'Sentinel Breath.' I want you to focus on the point where my mana is touching your soul."
Cian began to circulate his Primordial Heart-Core Breath. Because he possessed two cores, his mana was significantly denser and purer than hers. He sent a small, controlled needle of silver energy through the link.
Elena winced, her body jerking as the foreign energy entered her system. For years, her left lung had been a source of constant, dull pain, a secret she had hidden from everyone to avoid being labeled a liability. As Cian's mana hit the blockage, the pain spiked into a white-hot agony.
"Stay steady!" Cian's voice boomed in her mind, transmitted directly through the soul-link. "The pain is the 'Leash' breaking. Breathe through it."
Elena gritted her teeth, her knuckles turning white as she gripped her practice sword. She felt Cian's mana acting like a hot iron, cauterizing the stagnant energy in her lungs. The muddy, yellow light in his vision began to clear, replaced by the fierce, silver radiance of the Supreme-rank technique.
[Link Efficiency: 85%.]
[Knowledge Transfer: Primordial Heart-Core Breath (Stage 1) is being imprinted...]
Suddenly, Elena's eyes snapped open. She didn't see the training hall anymore. Through the synchronization, she was seeing the world through Cian's Akashic Scholar talent. She saw the "Source Code" of her own body. She saw the dozens of tiny, inefficient loops in her mana circulation. She saw the "Logic" of how mana was supposed to bind with muscle and bone.
It's so clear, she thought, her mind reeling. All these years, I was trying to push a river through a straw. But this... this is like the ocean flowing into me.
She began to breathe in the rhythm Cian dictated. With every inhale, the silver mana expanded her vessels. With every exhale, the impurities of the corrupted "Sentinel Breath" were expelled from her pores as a faint, grey mist.
[Student Progression: Elena Valerius.]
[Mana Density Increasing: 12%... 25%... 40%...]
[Talent Ceiling: Master Rank -> Loosening...]
"Now," Cian said, stepping back. "Draw your sword. Execute the first form of the Valerius Strike. But this time, don't think about the form. Think about the geometry."
Elena moved. In the past, her movements were powerful but slightly stiff, the result of her injury and the inefficient breathing technique. Now, she was a blur of silver light. She didn't just swing the blade; she moved with a mathematical precision that cut through the air without a sound.
WHOOSH.
The air pressure in the hall dropped for a fraction of a second as her blade carved a perfect arc through the space where an imaginary opponent's neck would be.
She stopped, her chest heaving, but for the first time in ten years, there was no pain. She felt light. She felt dangerous.
"My rank," she whispered, looking at her hands. "I haven't reached a new level, but my power... it feels twice as strong."
"That is because you were fighting with a broken engine," Cian said, his face pale from the strain of maintaining the link. "I haven't given you more power, Elena. I have simply stopped you from wasting the power you already had. This is the first step."
[System Notification: Sovereign Tutor Experience Gained.]
[Teacher's Tax: You have received a permanent 2% boost to your Mana Density based on Elena's growth.]
[Knowledge Points Gained: 10.]
Cian felt the "Tax" enter his own system, a small but significant reward for his efforts. This was the core of his power: the stronger his students became, the faster he would ascend. He wasn't just building an army; he was building a feedback loop of godhood.
"Go to your room and rest," Cian instructed, the blue link finally snapping and fading into the air. "The mana transition will make your muscles ache by morning. If anyone asks, tell them you had a breakthrough during your solo meditation. Do not mention me."
Elena looked at her brother, her eyes filled with a new kind of loyalty. It wasn't just the love of a sister for a brother anymore. It was the reverence of a student for a master. She bowed her head deeply, a gesture she usually reserved for their father.
"Thank you, Cian. I don't know what you are, or how you know these things, but I will keep your secret. I swear it on the soul of our mother."
As Elena slipped out of the hall, Cian slumped against a weapon rack. Maintaining the link at his current rank was exhausting. His two cores were pulsing rapidly, trying to recover the mana he had spent "patching" Elena's soul.
He closed his eyes, his mind already drifting back into the "Archive" of his memories. He needed to find a way to accelerate his own growth. The "Solo Predator" phase needed to be brief. He could feel the eyes of the Hegemony turning toward the border.
The dawn began to break over the Ironwood Fringe, but it brought no warmth. Instead, it brought the sound of heavy wheels on gravel and the rhythmic clatter of armored horses.
Cian walked to the window. In the distance, a carriage bearing the crest of the Silverian Hegemony a silver eye surrounded by seven swords was approaching the main gates of the Bastion.
His eyes narrowed as he recognized the man riding at the head of the escort. He didn't need the system to identify him. The man's face was etched into Cian's nightmares.
Baron Vane. The "Auditor." The man who had been the primary architect of the Valerius family's downfall in the first life. Vane was a Saint-rank warrior with a "Heroic" talent for bureaucracy and bloodletting. He was known as the "Hegemony's Eraser." If he was here, it meant the Emperor was already suspicious.
"You're early, Vane," Cian whispered, his voice cold as ice. "In the first life, you arrived in winter. It seems my little performance with the Stone has moved the schedule up."
Cian checked his status one last time.
[Rank: Awakened (Rank 2).]
[Class: Monster (2 Cores).]
[Abyssal Essence: 0/1000.]
He wasn't strong enough to kill a Saint yet. Not even close. But he didn't need to kill Vane today. He only needed to survive the "Audit" and buy enough time to turn his family guards into the "Mysterious Force" that would eventually hunt the hunter.
Cian straightened his tunic, wiped the sweat from his brow, and put on his mask the mask of the harmless, frail scholar.