The desperate will to survive burned in Erika's chest like a cold fire, momentarily overwhelming the weakness and headache from his spiritual depletion. Ignoring Wolfgang's order to 'rest' in his room, he forced his shaky legs to carry him back through the massive black metal door.
The Mark-Forging Hall was still immersed in its strange quiet of darkness and golden light, the low hum of energy a constant backdrop. He ignored the heavy tomes lining the walls—the ones detailing orthodox cultivation methods. Those books only taught how to be a docile 'vessel', how to build the Marks that were named power but felt like shackles. That wasn't what he needed now.
He needed the deeper secrets behind 'Mind-voice', the sharp tool that could let him spy on secrets and seize initiative.
He strode quickly towards the remembered bookshelves, his fingers running urgently over the spines. Fundamentals of Energy Channels, Essentials of Mark Construction, Hymns to the Eternal Circuit... Nothing. He moved to sections holding more obscure knowledge. Principles of Lower-Tier Sanctified Arts, Analysis of Elemental Resonance... Still nothing. He even risked glancing through a few of the most ancient, battered-looking notebooks. They mentioned crude techniques for 'mental assault' and 'will defense', but contained nothing about establishing stable, long-distance, let alone two-way, mental connections.
Without exception, all the texts emphasized strengthening one's own spirit through meditation and faith, aligning oneself better with the pulse of the Eternal Circuit to become a more qualified energy node. The interaction of mental force with other individuals, using energy to expand its boundaries—it was as if it were an academic desert, deliberately ignored.
Was it undeveloped, or... intentionally erased?
The thought sent a chill down his spine. If even knowledge was monopolized and pruned, where could a 'variable' like him find a way out?
Anxiety coiled around him like vines. Without theoretical guidance, his only hope rested on that dangerous, alluring possibility—using energy to forcibly break through mental limits.
He needed energy, urgently. A large amount of purified, easily guided Auric energy. He needed a 'battery'.
His gaze drifted irresistibly towards the neat rows of training cells, finally settling on an empty one with its door slightly ajar. He entered, closing the door softly behind him, sealing himself inside.
In the center of the cell, the miniature model of the 'Eternal Circuit' rotated slowly, emitting a steady, soft glow of energy. That was it. Erika knew these miniature circuits weren't power sources themselves; they drew power from the Sanctum's vast energy network through complex conduits.
But even with his shallow knowledge, he could deduce that the core components of such vital training facilities must store a significant concentration of highly purified energy internally. This ensured they could maintain operation for a time even if briefly disconnected from the main network, preventing practitioners from suffering backlash due to sudden power loss.
He only needed a little. Enough for a few brief experiments. It shouldn't... cause major problems, right?
Taking a deep breath to suppress his unease and guilt, Erika crouched, carefully examining the structure where the ring connected to the floor. Guided by the intuition from his 'rule-deconstruction' talent and fragmented knowledge of energy channels from the books, his fingers pressed and probed certain seemingly decorative runes and interfaces.
Click.
A very faint mechanical sound. A hairline crack appeared around the base of the ring where it met the floor. The stable energy fluctuation wavered almost imperceptibly.
Here!
Cautiously, he pressed his fingertip against the crack, feeling the warmth and prickling sensation from the near-liquid, concentrated energy flowing within. Recalling his brief success in attaching energy to a mental ripple, he split off another wisp of mental force and attempted... not to guide the energy into himself, but to graft his mental 'filament' directly towards the surging energy source inside the ring, like grafting a branch.
This was a far bolder and more dangerous move than before! It was like connecting his consciousness directly to a high-voltage power line!
HUM—!
The moment his mental filament touched the core energy of the ring, a torrent of energy, dozens of times purer and more vast than before, rushed back through the invisible connection like a bursting dam!
"Guh...!" Erika let out a stifled groan, feeling his head might explode from the force! His vision flooded with pure gold, his ears filled with the roar of raging energy!
But amidst the extreme pain and chaos, he clung to the last shred of clear intent. He didn't try to absorb this power—that would incinerate him instantly—but strained with all his might to guide and constrain it. It was like building a temporary, incredibly narrow channel for the furious flood, directing it towards the 'Mind-voice' mental framework he wanted to enhance.
It worked!
In that moment, he felt his mental perception magnified infinitely. The previously fuzzy 'frequencies' became as clear as violin strings. He could even 'see' the mental ripples emanating from himself, forcibly reinforced and amplified by the Auric energy, spreading out into the dark void with a brutal intensity, reaching far beyond his previous limits!
But the power was too strong, far beyond his ability to control with any finesse. He was like a child swinging a giant axe, utterly unable to control where it landed.
And at that very moment, the Mark on the back of his left hand erupted with a searing pain worse than ever before, as if it might tear his hand apart! It was as if this forcibly borrowed, alien power had touched some deeper... taboo.
Just as Erika felt his consciousness was about to be completely washed away by the furious energy torrent, and the burning pain in the Mark on his left hand also peaked—
A sudden change occurred!
The torrent of Auric energy he was forcibly guiding seemed to trip an invisible switch—not within him, but within the complex internal channels of the miniature ring. A completely different, cold and absolute mechanism activated.
HUM—
In the training cell, the slowly rotating miniature ring abruptly halted. The light it emitted shifted from soft gold to a blinding, bright white! Then, in the air about a person's height above the ring, light twisted and coalesced as if stirred by an invisible hand, swiftly outlining a blurred, humanoid silhouette composed of pure light.
The outline rapidly clarified and solidified.
It bore a striking resemblance to the 'Angel' he had seen in the Seventh District, but was much smaller in scale, with simpler, more abbreviated details and a distinct non-biological texture. Its entire form glowed with a steady white light. Its face was featureless, save for a single, slowly rotating, structurally simplified golden ring emblem. It had no wings, but streams of light, like data flows, coursed over its body.
The moment this 'Angel phantom' fully formed, it began rapid-fire announcements in a flat, synthetic, electronic voice:
[Warning: Auric energy circuit, anomalous load detected at user terminal. Spellcasting Circuit Breaker activated.]
[Circuit Status: Anomalous. Forcibly initiating 'Silent One' Protocol.]
[Commencing log collation... Error Code 74-Δ... Connection stability fallen below threshold...]
[Query the Knowledge Base, or request online support... Line anomaly, connection interrupted...]
This rapid, icy stream of announcements, completely beyond Erika's understanding, left his mind blank. Spellcasting Circuit Breaker? Silent One Protocol? Error Code? These words had no connection to any doctrine or cultivation knowledge he knew!
Just as the phantom seemed to stutter, repeating 'Line anomaly' due to the 'interrupted connection', survival instinct and burning curiosity overrode everything else. Almost without thinking, Erika shouted one of the words the phantom had just used, directing it at the hovering apparition:
"Query!"
The phantom's announcements ceased abruptly.
Its 'face'—the rotating golden ring emblem—instantly locked onto him. An invisible scanning sensation passed over his entire body, especially the still-searing Mark on his left hand.
A brief silence, as if some verification was occurring.
Then, the synthetic electronic voice spoke again, its tone (if an AI could have a tone) seeming... more stable:
[Command confirmed. Executing 'Query' protocol.]
[Identity verification... Valid Mark signal detected... Authority Level: Low-tier (Temporary). Access granted.]
[Initializing self-introduction program.]
[I am, the 'Silent One' Protocol enforcement unit, code sequence [unintelligible binary static]. Function: Maintain stability of cultivation circuits, handle low-tier operational anomalies, provide basic knowledge query services.]
Erika stared, dumbfounded, at the phantom calling itself the 'Silent One', his heart hammering. He didn't understand 'protocol' or 'code sequence', but he grasped one thing—this thing that looked like an Angel seemed to be a... sentient construct you could ask questions? And, due to some 'line anomaly', it seemed temporarily cut off from higher control?
A crazy opportunity lay right before him.
Faced with the Silent One's emotionless "gaze," Erika's mind, after the initial shock, raced. Wolfgang's warnings, Anna's concerns, the overheard secrets, the mysteries of his own Mark, and now this incomprehensible 'entity' before him... all the clues collided in his mind. He couldn't waste this chance, but any wrong question could trigger an unknown alarm, exposing him completely.
He took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing his churning emotions, and asked his first question in as steady and neutral a tone as possible—a basic, non-suspicious query that could verify the 'Silent One's' value:
"Query: How to more effectively stabilize the mental frequency of 'Mind-voice' and avoid external interference?"
He chose this entry point. It fit his identity as a 'new cultivator', seemingly seeking orthodox guidance while actually laying the groundwork for his most crucial ability: information gathering.
The ring emblem in the Silent One's 'face' flickered slightly, the synthetic voice responding without delay:
[Query received. Keywords: Mind-voice, mental frequency stabilization, interference avoidance.]
[According to Applied Fundamentals of Mental Dynamics (Restricted Edition), Chapter 7, Section 3: Stability core lies in 'harmonic convergence' of mental power. Recommend executing the following steps:]
[1. Use standard meditation formulae to calibrate baseline mental fluctuation frequency to 7.83 Hz (approximating Schumann Resonance). This is the foundational stable state.]
[2. Construct the mental barrier model 'Ferrata's Ring'. Algorithm as follows: [A complex, three-dimensional model composed of energy flow trajectories was projected directly into Erika's consciousness, far more precise than any book illustration.]]
[3. For active interference avoidance, perform dynamic frequency fine-tuning. Recommended deviation range: ±0.5 Hz. Exceeding this range significantly increases mental load and monitoring risk.]
[Warning: Attempting direct energy injection into mental conduction processes is prohibited. Violates Safety Operation Protocol Article 11. May cause irreversible neurological damage and system log flagging.]
Erika's mind reeled! The answer from the 'Silent One' was not only precise and efficient, directly naming concepts like 'harmonic convergence' and 'baseline frequency' absent from Anna's book, but it even provided a specific algorithmic model! More crucially, its explicit warning against energy injection indirectly confirmed the existence—and prohibition—of the very wild method he had been groping towards!
This was incredibly valuable!
Suppressing his excitement, he immediately asked a second question, digging slightly deeper, touching the core:
"Query: Definition and known causes of the 'Energy Feedback Phenomenon'."
He directly used the keyword overheard from the black-clad Clerics. This was a gamble, testing whether the 'Silent One's' database held relevant records and if it would trigger an alarm.
The Silent One flickered again.
[Query received. Keywords: Energy Feedback Phenomenon. Verifying permissions...]
[Warning: This information pertains to the field of 'Anomalous Energy Interaction'. Your current permission level (Low-tier/Temporary) is insufficient for full database access.]
[Based on publicly available summary: The 'Energy Feedback Phenomenon' refers to a non-standard process wherein an energy recipient conducts reverse energy transfer towards the energy source or a third-party target during specific energy conversion or mutation processes. Typically associated with high-tier energy lifeforms, deep contamination, or system vulnerabilities. Causes are complex. Listed as 'Observation Project'.]
[Further information requires higher permissions or specific event triggers.]
Insufficient permissions! But this limited summary made Erika's heart skip a beat. 'Typically associated with... system vulnerabilities'? 'Listed as Observation Project'? This almost confirmed that Cecilia's situation likely touched upon a vulnerability within the energy system itself!
He didn't dare ask directly about Cecilia or the Purification Ring; that was too obvious. He changed angles, asking a third question, one most critical to his immediate survival:"Query: Causes and remediation procedures for persistent burning sensations in the Mark following energy overload or contact with anomalous energy."
This was his personal, pain, concerning whether he could safely use his power.
[Query received. Keywords: Mark, energy overload, anomalous energy contact, burning sensation.]
[Analyzing... Based on Mark physiological models, persistent burning typically stems from:]
[a) Minor tearing of energy channels or overload-induced inflammation. Recommendation: Cease energy channeling. Utilize standard restoration meditation.]
[b) 'Crystallization' or 'rejection reaction' within the Mark's internal energy structure. Recommendation: Submit detailed logs. Request high-tier Cleric for 'structural organized'.]
[c) Unconventional interaction with the underlying system's 'Resonance Protocol'. Cause unknown. Remediation: None. Requires submitting anomaly report to the 'Keeper' sequence.]
[Warning: If burning is accompanied by consciousness interference, memory loss, or energy dyscontrol, immediately cease all activity and report to your direct superior.]
Resonance Protocol! Keeper sequence!
Another new, weighty term slammed into him. The description for option 'c' matched his experience of forced blankness and grief when trying to recall the 'Purification Ring'! Did the Mark on his body connect not just as a container, but to some deeper, underlying system rule called the 'Resonance Protocol'? And the 'Keepers' seemed to be the entities handling such high-level anomalies?
As he digested this explosive information and prepared to formulate his next question—
The Silent One's phantom suddenly flickered violently, its synthetic voice acquiring a frantic static:
[Warning! Detected main link restoration attempt... Connection stability recovering... External command intervention...]
[Forcibly terminating current 'Query' session... Uploading logs...]
[Silent One Protocol going offline. Resuming normal monitoring mode.]
Hum...
The phantom before him instantly disintegrated into countless points of light, vanishing. The miniature ring in the center of the cell resumed its slow rotation, its glow returning to the soft gold, as if nothing had happened.
But Erika knew everything was different.
He had obtained vital intelligence: the precise operation method for Mind-voice, the possible link between 'Energy Feedback' and system vulnerabilities, and the potential root of his Mark's pain—the 'Resonance Protocol' and the 'Keepers'.
Yet, the crisis was also more imminent. The Silent One had reconnected to the main system. His 'anomalous query' had likely been logged and uploaded. He might have drawn unwanted attention.
Time had grown even tighter.
He stood there, the burning in his left hand's Mark still present, but his mind now charted a clearer, and far more dangerous, course of action.