The cliffs had gone quiet.
The stars had started to move again.
But something in Kai Valenhardt had changed forever.
That night, after the being vanished, Kai didn't return home. He couldn't.
His feet led him somewhere else—somewhere older.
Past the Singing Groves.
Beyond the Broken Stones.
Into the Shattered Vale, where echoes of the world's first war still hummed under ash and wind.
> [Status Update]
Level: 3 → 4
EXP Gained through passive awakening resistance.
Path of the Limitless One: Initiated
New Training Skill Unlocked: Adaptive Resonance – Learn faster from every movement, pain, and memory.
Bonus: Passive EXP gain while under physical and mental strain.
Kai clenched his fists.
"If he was like me once… then I need to be stronger than he ever was."
A whisper of footsteps followed him.
Not real enemies. Just memories left behind by those who fell in this cursed place.
But even ghosts carried weight when you were alone in the dark.
---
For three days and nights, Kai trained.
He fought the winds.
He ran up shattered cliff walls with bare feet until his skin bled.
He struck crumbling stone pillars until his knuckles turned purple, then white, then tougher than before.
> [Adaptive Resonance: Activated]
STR +1
AGI +1
Passive Pain Tolerance increased
Muscular fatigue absorbed into growth
He had no blade. So he carved one.
From a broken obsidian fang buried beneath the dust—lightweight and unnaturally cold to the touch.
It hummed when he gripped it. Not a weapon of man.
> [Unknown Item Acquired: ???]
Status: Bound to Heaven's Chosen
Awakening pending…
Still, the system remained quiet about his second class.
Locked. Waiting. Watching.
Kai looked at his own hands—scraped and burned—and saw something he'd never seen before.
Potential.
Not because someone gave it to him.
But because he carved it with his own blood.
---
By the fourth night, he stood again at the edge of the Shattered Vale, sweat dripping from his jaw, shirt clinging to his battered body.
> Level: 4 → 6
Stat Growth: Accelerated
Status: Unstable Potential Detected
[Warning: Host soul syncing with unknown timeline frequency]
Attempted Infiltration: Blocked
Intruder Ejected
Timeline Lock: Reinforced
Someone tried to interfere again.
Another attempt to reach through… maybe to twist him.
And again, they were ejected.
Kai didn't smile. He simply breathed.
"I don't know who you are, Voidbound Tyrant…" he whispered.
"But if you come for my world, for Aria, or for me… I'll be ready."
The wind swirled.
And the obsidian blade hummed louder.
---
Next: Chapter 11 - "Threads of Fate - The Seer's Warning"