The walk from the Luminous Zenith Academy to the Vane District should have taken an hour. For the old Aetherion, it was a grueling trek through the high-pressure corridors of the city, punctuated by frequent stops to clutch his chest and gasp for air. But for the man who now occupied his skin, the distance was an insult.
Aetherion moved with a fluid, haunting grace. His Primordial Elemental-Void Physique had not just strengthened his muscles; it had synchronized his body with the very fabric of reality. Each step he took seemed to compress the space beneath his boots, a subtle manifestation of the [Myriad World Step] that was already beginning to take root in his soul.
As he descended into the mid-tier districts, the crowds began to part. It wasn't just the obsidian hair or the sheer, devastating perfection of his face—it was the Sovereign Aura. Even at its lowest setting, it radiated a cold, absolute authority. People didn't just move out of his way; they looked down, their instincts screaming that to meet his gaze was to look into the sun.
[DING!]
[Status Check: Level 15 (Peak Spirit Awakening).]
[System Note: Your 'Existence' is currently suppressed. Full unsealing will occur upon reaching Level 100.]
Aetherion ignored the notifications. His golden rings were fixed on a crumbling manor at the end of a dead-end street. The Vane Estate was a ghost of its former glory. Once a palace of white marble and gold leaf, it was now a skeletal ruin, its walls stained by the soot of the nearby Ether-Forges.
At the gate stood two guards in the livery of the Rising Sun Clan—Kael's family. They were there as "debt collectors," a polite term for vultures waiting for the last of the Vane family to die.
"Stop right there, traveler," one of the guards barked, leveling a bronze spear. He was Level 8, a common soldier. "This property is under the jurisdiction of the Solar-Flare Patriarch. No—"
The guard stopped. His spear began to tremble. As Aetherion stepped into the dim light of the street, the guard finally saw his face. It was a face that didn't belong in the slums. It was a Transcendent Celestial Visage, a work of divine art that made the guard's own heart stutter in fear and involuntary admiration.
"I am home," Aetherion said.
The voice was a layered, melodic baritone that vibrated the guard's armor. It wasn't a request; it was a statement of fact that the universe itself seemed to acknowledge.
"V-Vane? Aetherion Vane?" the second guard stammered, his eyes bulging. "That's impossible. He's a cripple... a shadow... he's—"
"He is gone," Aetherion said, walking past them. He didn't push them. He didn't strike them. But as he passed, the guards felt a wave of Null-Void energy wash over them. Their bronze spears cracked, the metal turning to gray ash as the "Concept" of their durability was siphoned away by Aetherion's presence.
The Inner Sanctum
The interior of the manor was worse than the outside. The high ceilings were draped in cobwebs, and the smell of expensive incense had been replaced by the scent of medicinal herbs and dust.
"Aetherion? Is that you?"
A woman emerged from a side room. She looked to be in her early twenties, her face worn with exhaustion but still possessing a haunting beauty. This was Liora Vane, Aetherion's older sister. She was holding a tray of empty vials—the remains of the "Void-Stabilizing" pills that had kept Aetherion alive.
When she saw the man standing in the foyer, she dropped the tray. The glass shattered against the stone floor, the sound echoing through the empty house.
"Who... who are you?" Liora whispered, her hand going to the small dagger at her waist. "Where is my brother?"
Aetherion felt a pang of genuine emotion—the only thing that had survived the System's reconstruction. He walked forward, his footsteps silent.
"Liora," he said softly. "The clock reached zero."
Liora froze. That was a secret between them—a childhood story Aetherion had told her about a timer in his eyes that would one day change the world. She looked into his golden-ringed eyes and saw the boy she had protected for eighteen years, now reborn as a god.
"Aetherion?" She reached out, her fingers trembling as she touched his cheek. His skin was warm, vibrant, and hummed with a power she couldn't comprehend. "What happened to you? You look... you look like the Ancestors."
"The Ancestors were just a beginning, Liora," Aetherion said, taking her hands. "The Vane Clan will no longer be a joke. No one will ever make you work in the forges again."
[DING!]
[Fate-Mission Triggered: The Clan's Rebirth.]
[Objective: Expel the Rising Sun debt collectors from the Vane Estate.]
[Reward: 50,000 Origin Points & Unlock System Function: 'Sovereign Market'.]
"Aetherion, you have to leave," Liora suddenly said, her eyes wide with panic. "The Rising Sun Elders are in the study with Father. They're forcing him to sign over the last of our 'Core-Rights'. If he signs, we'll be exiled to the Wastes!"
Aetherion's smile was cold, a beautiful curve of the lips that promised nothing but destruction. "Then I arrived just in time for the signing."
The Judgment in the Study
The double doors of the Vane study were made of heavy iron-oak, designed to keep out the crushing pressure of the Bastion's Ether. Inside, the atmosphere was suffocating.
Balthazar Vane, Aetherion's father, sat behind a scarred mahogany desk. He looked twenty years older than he was, his hair bone-white, his eyes hollow. Across from him stood three men in golden robes—the Elders of the Rising Sun Clan.
"Sign it, Balthazar," the Lead Elder sneered, tapping a parchment made of dragon-skin. "Your son is a corpse-to-be. Your daughter is a laborer. Why cling to a legacy that has already failed? Sign the rights over, and we will give you enough gold to live out your remaining days in the lower city."
Balthazar's hand trembled as he reached for the quill. "My son... he might still..."
"Your son is a 'Mute', Balthazar! A glitch in the machine!" the Elder laughed. "Now, sign before—"
BOOM.
The iron-oak doors didn't just open; they vanished. Aetherion had used [Concept Deletion] on the very idea of a "Barrier."
The three Elders spun around, their hands glowing with solar Ether. They were Level 30—Intermediate Cultivators who considered themselves lords of the mid-city.
"Who dares—" the Lead Elder started, but the words died in his throat.
Aetherion walked into the room. His long obsidian hair drifted behind him as if he were underwater. The golden rings in his eyes were spinning at a lethal velocity. The Sovereign Aura in the room became so dense that the mahogany desk cracked in half under the sudden weight.
The Elders felt their own bones groan. The pressure wasn't coming from the Bastion; it was coming from the man standing before them.
"Aetherion?" Balthazar whispered, standing up so quickly his chair overturned. "My son?"
Aetherion didn't look at his father yet. He looked at the Lead Elder.
"You were speaking of my soul-core," Aetherion said, his voice a melodic death knell. "You were speaking of my family's honor. I believe you owe the Vane Clan a debt that gold cannot pay."
"You... you're the cripple?" the Lead Elder stammered, trying to summon his Solar-Fire. "Impossible! Your level... I can't even read your level! You're using a masking artifact!"
"There is no artifact," Aetherion said. He took a single step forward.
"Slot 1: Concept Deletion. Target: 'Sunlight'."
The solar Ether in the Elders' hands didn't just go out—it turned black. The heat they were manifesting was inverted, freezing their own fingers until they turned brittle and snapped like icicles.
"AAARGH!" the Lead Elder screamed, clutching his mangled hand. "Kill him! Kill this monster!"
The other two Elders lunged. They were fast—moving at speeds that would have been a blur to a normal human. They channeled their Level 30 power into a combined strike, a beam of concentrated solar energy designed to melt stone.
Aetherion didn't even raise his hands.
"Slot 2: Infinite Regression. Action: Counter-Impact."
The solar beam hit an invisible wall an inch from Aetherion's face. Then, it happened. The impact was regressed—repeated ten million times in a single microsecond.
The energy didn't just bounce back; it magnified until it became a pillar of white-hot annihilation. The two Elders didn't even have time to scream. Their bodies were atomized instantly, leaving nothing but two scorched outlines on the stone floor.
The Lead Elder fell to his knees, his robes smoking, his eyes wide with a terror that transcended physical pain. He looked at Aetherion—at the most handsome, terrifying face in the Omniverse—and realized he wasn't looking at a cultivator.
He was looking at the End.
"Please..." the Elder whimpered. "The Rising Sun Clan... we have thousands of warriors... the Patriarch will—"
"The Patriarch will be next," Aetherion said. He reached out and touched the dragon-skin parchment on the desk. With a thought, the document turned to ash.
"Go back to your master," Aetherion commanded. "Tell him that Aetherion Vane has returned. Tell him that the Vane Clan is no longer the Warden of the Core."
He leaned in, his golden rings glowing with a predatory light.
"Tell him we are the Core."
[DING!]
[Mission Complete: The Clan's Rebirth.]
[Reward: 50,000 Origin Points.]
[System Function Unlocked: 'Sovereign Market'.]
[Status Check: Level Up! Level 15 -> Level 25.]
The New Reality
The Elder scrambled out of the room, leaving a trail of blood and shattered pride behind him. Silence fell over the study, broken only by the heavy breathing of Balthazar Vane.
Liora stood in the doorway, tears streaming down her face. Balthazar walked around the broken desk, his hands shaking as he touched Aetherion's shoulders.
"Aetherion... I don't understand," his father whispered. "What have you become?"
"I have become what the world feared I would be, Father," Aetherion said, his voice softening only slightly. "I am the rewrite of the Script. Everything they took from us—our lands, our pride, our strength—I will take it back tenfold."
He turned to the window, looking out over the city of Vanguard-Prime. In the distance, the Great Spire pulsed with light. To the rest of the world, it was the source of life. To Aetherion, it was just the first piece of loot.
"System," Aetherion thought. "Show me the Sovereign Market."
[DING! Opening Sovereign Market...]
[Available Items:]
[Clan-Tier Spirit Spring (Rank: S)] – 10,000 Points
[Void-Steel Guardian Automatons (x10)] – 20,000 Points
[Manual: The Architect's Blueprint (Building Rank: S)] – 15,000 Points
"Buy all," Aetherion commanded.
[Purchasing... 45,000 Points deducted.]
[Deploying rewards...]
Suddenly, the floor of the Vane Estate trembled. From the center of the courtyard, a geyser of pure, crystalline Ether erupted—a Spirit Spring far more potent than anything the Rising Sun Clan possessed. Ten massive suits of obsidian armor, glowing with a hollow violet light, materialized at the manor's perimeter, their Level 50 auras creating a permanent shield around the estate.
"The Vane Manor is now a Forbidden Zone," Aetherion told his stunned family. "No one enters without my permission. No one leaves without my blessing."
He turned to Liora. "Tomorrow, we go to the Azure Cloud Academy. I believe I have an 'Awakening Ceremony' to attend."
Liora wiped her eyes, a fierce pride replacing her fear. "They won't know what hit them."
"No," Aetherion smiled, his celestial face glowing in the moonlight. "They'll know exactly what hit them. They'll just be too busy kneeling to do anything about it."
Technical Breakdown: The Path of the Sovereign
Aetherion sat in his old room that night, though the bed had been replaced by a [Void-Nourishing Throne] he had purchased from the market. He closed his eyes and entered his internal sea.
His heart was no longer a muscle of flesh. It was a rotating singularity of Null-Energy. Every beat sent ripples through the Aetheric sea of the Bastion.
[System Function: Infinite Lottery.]
[Current Tickets: 1 SSS-Rank Ticket.]
"Use the ticket," Aetherion commanded.
[DING! Drawing from the SSS-Rank Infinite Lottery...]
[Calculating possibilities from outside the Omniverse...]
[Result: Bloodline - [The Primordial Chaos-Dragon (Sealed - 1/10)].]
[Effect: Grants 'Absolute Authority' over all beast-kin and 'Dimensional Claws' that can rend space.]
Aetherion felt a new power take root in his spine. A phantom image of a dragon—vast, black, and covered in shifting stars—roared in his mind.
"One tenth," Aetherion mused. "Even at one percent, I could erase this planet."
He looked at the sky. He could feel the eyes of the Higher Dimensions beginning to turn toward Aethelgard Zero. The "Error" had been noticed. The "Script" was bleeding.
"Let them watch," Aetherion whispered.