Chapter 1
Death had been… quiet.
Not dramatic.
Not tragic.
Just silent.
Kael Veyron remembered the moment precisely — the fracture of his Causal Threads, the collapse of his Eidolon Core, the implosion of the Dominion Field he had held against the Sovereign King.
He had saved humanity.
They had called him monster.
They had feared what came after victory.
And so they chose betrayal.
The blade that pierced his heart had not belonged to a Sovereign.
It had belonged to a human.
—
A pulse.
A tremor through existence.
Then—
Breath.
Air flooded into lungs that were not destroyed.
Pain.
But not fatal.
Kael's eyes opened.
Bright sky.
Cloudless.
The scent of dust and ozone.
He was lying on cold stone.
Voices echoed around him.
"…next batch coming through!"
"Check their Aether resonance levels!"
"Move! Move!"
Kael sat up slowly.
His vision stabilized. His perception expanded instinctively, scanning the surrounding Aether flux.
Stable.
Modern.
Pre-Collapse density.
His gaze lowered to his hands.
Younger.
Unscarred.
No Entropy fractures.
No Authority branding across the veins.
A flicker of something unreadable passed through his eyes.
Then it disappeared.
—
Above him stood a colossal obsidian gate inscribed with rotating sigils — fractal geometries woven into luminous circuits.
The entrance to the Imperial Combat Academy.
The Entrance Trial.
Ten years ago.
He recognized the day instantly.
The day he first awakened.
The day he was weak.
Around him, hundreds of teenagers stood nervously, whispering, stretching, adjusting armor, activating beginner spell matrices.
None of them noticed the stillness surrounding him.
He felt it.
The world was lighter.
Simpler.
Fragile.
And then—
A translucent interface unfolded before his vision.
Not projected.
Imprinted onto his perception.
---
[Dominion Protocol – Sovereign-Class Aetheric Engine Initialized]
Host Identity Confirmed: Kael Veyron
Soul Imprint: 98.7% Integrity
Authority Index: 0 (Sealed)
Dominion Field: Locked
Primary Functions: Restricted
Welcome back, Sovereign Candidate.
---
There was no surprise in his expression.
Of course it followed.
The fragment.
The consciousness embedded within the system.
In his past life, he had believed it a tool.
He now understood better.
It was an observer.
A judge.
A catalyst.
Kael rose to his feet.
The air around him shifted subtly as his Aether Channels aligned unconsciously to optimal flow symmetry.
A nearby boy flinched.
"D-did you feel that?"
"Feel what?"
Kael ignored them.
At the center of the field, a tall man in silver combat attire addressed the candidates.
"Welcome to the Imperial Combat Academy Entrance Trial."
His voice carried enhanced resonance — amplified through controlled Aether vibration.
"You will enter the simulation gate behind me. Inside awaits a Riftborn Manifestation. Defeat it, and you pass. Fail—"
A pause.
"You are removed."
Meaning injured. Possibly crippled.
Rarely fatal.
Rarely.
Kael's perception brushed against the gate.
It wasn't a simple simulation.
It was a compressed subspace pocket anchored through rotational sigil arrays.
Impressive for this era.
Primitive compared to Sovereign architecture.
His name was called.
"Candidate 117. Kael Veyron."
Murmurs.
"Low resonance score."
"He'll probably last ten seconds."
Kael stepped forward without speaking.
He walked past the instructor.
Past the shimmering barrier.
And entered.
—
The world inverted.
Space folded into itself, then stabilized into a ruined cityscape.
Broken concrete.
Twisted steel.
A sky stained crimson.
Artificial, but well-rendered.
Across the shattered plaza, something moved.
A Riftborn Aberrant.
Three meters tall.
Elongated limbs.
Exposed exoskeletal plating.
Its torso split vertically, revealing a pulsing Aetheric core.
It screeched — a frequency attack designed to disrupt neural pathways.
Kael did not react.
He analyzed.
Aether Density: Moderate
Core Exposure Interval: 1.7 seconds per pulse
Movement Pattern: Predatory arc sweep
Cognitive Function: Low
Inefficient.
The Aberrant lunged.
The ground fractured beneath its claws as it accelerated.
Kael stepped sideways.
Not fast.
Not flashy.
Perfectly timed.
The creature's claw passed where his spine had been a fraction of a second earlier.
He rotated his Aether flow inward, compressing it along his forearm in a counter-spiral configuration.
No chant.
No sigil.
Raw manipulation.
The Aberrant pivoted unnaturally, tail whipping toward his skull.
Kael leaned backward precisely 14 degrees.
The tail grazed his maskless face by millimeters.
He moved forward.
One step.
His palm struck the creature's sternum.
Not hard.
Precise.
Aether surged through the impact point — not explosively, but in a destabilizing harmonic frequency.
The Aberrant's core flickered.
It staggered.
Kael shifted his Aether output again, altering oscillation to match the core's pulse.
Resonance alignment.
Then—
Disruption.
The core imploded inward silently.
No explosion.
No dramatic flare.
The creature collapsed as its internal mana lattice disintegrated.
Seven seconds.
Silence returned to the plaza.
—
Outside the gate, monitors flickered.
The instructors stared.
"…what?"
"That's impossible."
"He didn't even activate a formal spell matrix."
The silver-clad examiner narrowed his eyes.
"Replay the footage."
Inside the simulation, Kael stood unmoving as the environment dissolved into white light.
---
Trial Complete.
Performance Rating: Anomalous
Aether Control Efficiency: 96%
Combat Prediction Accuracy: 99.2%
Authority Index Increased: +1
---
Authority.
He felt it.
A faint shift in gravity around him.
Subtle.
Almost imperceptible.
But real.
The Dominion Protocol responded.
[New Subroutine Unlocked: Neural Latency Suppression – Level 1]
Kael exhaled slowly.
Progress.
The white light collapsed.
He stepped back into reality.
The field had gone quiet.
Hundreds of eyes stared at him.
He did not acknowledge them.
The silver-clad instructor approached.
"What technique did you use?"
Kael looked at him.
His gaze was calm.
Empty.
"Basic Aether modulation."
The instructor frowned. "That level of precision is not basic."
Kael said nothing further.
Silence stretched.
Something in the air felt heavier.
A girl standing nearby swallowed hard.
"Why does it feel like… like the air's pressing down?"
Another student stepped back unconsciously.
Kael felt it too.
The beginning.
The faint outline of a pressure field forming naturally around his existence.
Not activated.
Not intentional.
Authority bleeding through.
The instructor's communicator buzzed.
He answered quietly.
"Yes… I see… Understood."
He ended the call and looked at Kael again — differently now.
Measured.
Cautious.
"You are hereby admitted to the Imperial Combat Academy."
A pause.
"Report to Hall C for ranking assessment."
Kael inclined his head slightly.
Then he turned and walked away.
Each step calm.
Measured.
Unhurried.
Behind him, whispers erupted.
"Who is he?"
"I've never seen that control before."
"Why did the Riftborn just… collapse?"
No one had an answer.
Above the Academy, hidden beyond visible spectrum, an ancient sigil embedded deep within the central tower flickered briefly.
It reacted.
It recognized something.
Something it had not sensed in ten years.
A Sovereign resonance.
And within Kael's mind, the Dominion Protocol pulsed once more.
---
Observation: Host efficiency exceeds projected parameters.
Inquiry: Will you dominate this era as you did the last?
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