The gray nothingness shattered.
An impossible castle rose around Alex—pale, luminous, and endless. Towers stretched beyond reason, their surfaces glowing like liquid pearl. The ground beneath him was smooth and yielding, rippling faintly beneath each step before restoring itself.
He hovered.
The Celestial Compass quivered in his grip. North still pointed true—but warning pulses echoed through it, irregular and insistent.
Movement flickered ahead.
[ SYSTEM MESSAGE ]
Void Entities Detected: Phantoms
Void Scale: 1–2–0
Elimination Credit: Conditional
They emerged in clusters—translucent, winged forms stitched together wrong, as if reality had failed to finish them. Their wings resembled his own elytra, but fractured. Jagged. Incomplete.
They moved like predators.
Alex struck first.
Black wings snapped wide as Frenzy Magic ignited. He tore through one phantom—but the others adapted instantly, splitting and circling, testing distance and timing. Their coordination was deliberate.
A serrated wing grazed his side.
Pain cut sharp.
They weren't imitating him.
They were studying him.
Alex banked hard, Ascension flaring, maddening flames intensifying. The phantoms shrieked in discordant chorus, sound warping through the luminous halls.
Fire met shadow.
The castle reacted—light bending, floor rippling, towers humming faintly as chaos disturbed the structure. Each clash carved fleeting scars into the Kingdom before it healed itself.
This place isn't passive.
It's watching.
He realized then: the phantoms weren't meant to kill him quickly. They were pressure. Attrition. Adaptation.
Mirrors.
— — —
Time dissolved.
The light never dimmed, but exhaustion crept in regardless. Wings ached. Frenzy Magic burned lower, tighter. Hunger followed—real, insistent.
His madness cooled.
Not weaker.
Sharper.
Alex hovered above a drifting cluster of phantoms. Runes shimmered faintly across their bodies.
Aquila.
The Celestial Compass hummed softly in response.
I can take it.
Carefully, he reached out—not striking, but touching. One phantom shuddered as Aquila energy siphoned into him, the rune dissolving as it was absorbed.
Strength settled into his wings. Ascension tightened. Control improved.
He stopped before greed could take over.
The Kingdom reacted—light shifting, phantoms withdrawing.
They had noticed.
— — —
[ SYSTEM WINDOW ]
Status Window
Username: Lumen of the Void
Age: 16
Revolution: Awakening
Class: Starkindred
Alignment: Neutral / Wretch
Status Effects:
Shattered Psyche
Curses:
Cursed FateYellow Blight (Suppressed)
Abilities:
Basic Awareness — 345 / 1000Combat Fundamentals II — 357 / 400Ascension — 4 / 100
Magic:
Star Magic — 223 / 2000Orionis Sagitta — 254 / 500Frenzy Magic — Active
Battle Arts:
Starspear Arts — 521 / 1000
Equipment:
Weapon: Archaeon Warspear — 267 / 1000Shield: Manasteel Kite Shield — 0 / 500Armor: Reinforced Bronze Armor — 0 / 200Ethereal Raiment: Unbreakable
Runes:
Tempus (V) ×1Chaos (III) ×2Chaos (I) ×1Lux (I) ×1Tenebris (I) ×1Aquila (II) ×3
Artifacts:
Celestial Compass
Items:
None
---
A presence entered the Kingdom.
Purple light folded inward as wings vast and deliberate eclipsed the halls. Feathers shimmered darkly, iridescent and perfect. A broken halo hovered above the figure's head, streaked with chaos.
The face was familiar.
Too familiar.
Alex didn't move.
Samael hovered before him, expression calm, unreadable.
"I've been watching," Samael said.
The voice carried no malice.
That made it worse.
It wasn't a threat.
It was assessment.
Alex studied him in silence. The symmetry. The restraint. The weight of potential.
A perfected reflection.
"You are starving," Samael continued. "And still wasting power."
Alex's wings twitched.
Samael descended, landing without disturbing the floor. "Your Frenzy burns unchecked. Your Star Magic remains crude. Orionis Sagitta is not meant to be flung blindly."
He gestured.
Starfire traced the air—clean arcs, controlled, devastating.
"Bind it to your spear," Samael said. "Let madness fuel precision. I call the form Ursa Ignis."
The name settled into Alex's mind like a locked mechanism clicking open.
"Begin small," Samael added. "Control precedes annihilation."
The phantoms stirred.
Alex tightened his grip on the Warspear. Frenzy Magic rose—contained. Starfire answered, weaving inward instead of outward.
For the first time, the power listened.
The Luminous Kingdom hummed.
Samael watched.
And Alex understood—this was not mercy.
It was cultivation.
— — —