Midnight at the Argyros Estate.
The corridors outside Nadia's bedroom lay in absolute silence. Not even the faintest breath stirred the air—but this silence was deceptive.
Seated by the balcony, her eyes gently closed, Nadia was fully alert. Her consciousness extended like invisible threads through the Estate, scanning the familiar lattice of chrome energy.
She sensed four guards stationed on either side of the corridor flanking her room. Six more stood watch over the West Wing—the wing her room belonged to.
Further along, as her perception stretched toward the North Wing where the vault was located, a scattered network of patrolling guards emerged.
She had done this every night. Since her last visit to the chrome vault, Nadia had committed the Estate's nighttime security routine to memory. Every path. Every rotation. She even knew how many steps each guard took before turning back.
Once her mental map confirmed that everything was exactly as expected, she rose from her seat. The moonlight poured in through the tall, arched windows, bathing her in silver.
She crossed the room with unhurried grace and came to a stop in front of a tall, full-length mirror.
In its surface stood the reflection of a young woman—elegant and focused. Her skin glowed with an otherworldly pallor under the moonlight.
She was dressed entirely in black: fitted corduroy pants, a sleeveless cotton top, and a corduroy cropped jacket, all lined with anti-chrome fiber. On her hands she put on the sleek black silk gloves—the very same pair from her last visit.
The outfit wasn't improvised. After hearing from one of the maids that Nadia had shown interest in her vault attire, Caelum had been so pleased he commissioned multiple similar sets for her.
When she received them, Nadia had been speechless. However, these were indeed more practical and useful to her than her everyday dresses.
"Falsification – Replicate."
[Falsification: Replicate or Erase data traces of the user's presence and chrome energy at will
Usage limit: 4 times every 24 hours. Skill usage resets 24 hours after its first use. Can be evolved at level 16
Falsification Usage: 3/4. Resets in 23 Hours, 59 Minutes and 59 Seconds]
The air in front of her shimmered.
A blurry silhouette took form—a transparent figure matching her shape and posture, as if the very air had turned into warped glass. It wavered faintly, flickering like heat haze.
"Falsification – Erase."
Immediately, Nadia activated Falsification again—this time to erase her own presence. A soft pulse radiated outward from her body, and she vanished from the chrome-detection plane.
[Falsification Usage: 2/4. Resets in 23 Hours, 59 Minutes and 55 Seconds]
The system chimed again with a reminder. She spared the alert a glance, then waited, motionless, ears attuned to any disturbance beyond her doors.
Nothing.
No footsteps. No shift in breath. No tension in chrome.
The guards hadn't noticed.
She let out a slow breath and turned her gaze to the distorted double in front of her. It was eerie, as if her reflection had stepped out of the mirror and lingered.
"Impressive," she muttered absently, studying it.
"You will like it more once it's evolved."
"I'm looking forward to that."
She pulled out her chrome phone from a pocket on her jacket.
"Unlock. Map. North Wing."
She commanded in succession, while the chrome phone obeyed and zoomed in on the entrance of the North Wing.
{Would you like to move to the North Wing?}
"Yes."
A brilliant white light bloomed around her—and a second later, the bedroom faded from view.
When her vision cleared, Nadia stood in a courtyard she didn't recognize.
The area was dim and hushed, lined with flowerbeds, a few pine trees, and tall grasses that swayed gently in the night air.
In front of her loomed a massive building made of bricks and stones with two imposing wooden doors—smooth and dark like aged mahogany.
She approached, placing a gloved hand on the door's cool surface. The Estate's integrated recognition system responded to her touch. With a near-silent click, the doors unlocked and parted.
Despite the main building's antique aesthetic, the hinges were modern—silent.
She was just about to step inside when her senses prickled.
Two guardians. Southbound. Six hundred meters and closing.
The night's natural darkness, paired with obstacles like trees and tall bushes, kept her hidden. And thanks to Falsification, they couldn't detect her chrome energy.
But the skill didn't make her invisible.
If they caught sight of her, she'd be exposed.
Without delay, Nadia slipped inside. Her footsteps were soundless. She hadn't worn shoes tonight—only black anti-chrome socks.
Even the softest sole might alert guards with heightened senses. Her caution paid off; she moved like a shadow, completely silent.
The doors closed behind her, just as quietly as they had opened.
The inside of the wing was cloaked in pitch darkness. Every single light had been turned off—no need for illumination in a place no one dared to visit at this hour.
The darkness seemed intentional, as even the moonlight seen through the windows was blocked by an invisible barrier from streaming in and brightening up the space.
Nadia paused just beyond the threshold, letting the silence settle around her like a second skin. She waited for her eyes to adjust, but even her heightened senses offered no advantage here.
The void of movement, sound, and presence rendered her instincts mute. There wasn't a single soul in this part of the estate. Only emptiness.
Nadia exhaled quietly and summoned her chrome energy.
Though far from a master, she had studied enough in the library to grasp the basics of energy manipulation. Focusing inward, she pulled a concentrated thread of active chrome energy from her core and directed it to her eyes.
The transformation was immediate—her irises began to glow, a deep, seething red, as if her eyes had become a pair of pools of boiling blood, alive and pulsing.
The darkness receded.
She could now see the entire wing unfold before her like a layered 3D map. Every hallway, every turn, every insignificant crevice sharpened into view.
The North Wing was structured as a single floor, but the tall, vaulted ceilings gave it the illusion of a multi-story façade, blending it seamlessly with the rest of the estate's grandeur.
The entrance opened into a wide hall that branched into several dozens of indistinguishable narrow corridors—twisting, mirroring paths designed like a labyrinth.
She traced the path she had taken with Edgard during their previous visit. A corridor to the left led into the west wing, and just before it, another fork had led them on a detour—a route Edgard had used to bypass the central hall and access the chrome vault from the west.
It had been efficient then, but from her current position, it would only cost time.
Instead, Nadia spotted a more direct route—one that branched off to her right and cut clean through the wing toward the vault.
Without hesitation, she took it.
The hallway looked identical to the others—polished obsidian walls, smooth flooring, not a single feature out of place. She had already investigated several false paths earlier—mirrored corridors that led to cold, echoing dead ends.
The entire North Wing was built like a maze. She understood the purpose behind this architecture. The design was deliberate, crafted to confuse and repel. It was the first line of defense, a silent deterrent against intrusion.
A few quiet minutes passed as she moved deeper through the passage, her steps soundless. Eventually, she reached the familiar room—the entryway to the underground vault. But it wasn't the same as before.
Last time, there had been a massive hole in the ground, a spiraling descent into the earth's hidden veins. Now, all she saw was a smooth stretch of flawless concrete. No crack, no seam, not even a hint of where the entry had once been.
It didn't surprise her.
She stepped forward, unfazed, and knelt at the spot where she remembered the entrance had once opened. With calm precision, she extended her hand and laid it gently on the cold stone, pressing her fingers against the invisible boundary.
The moment they made contact a faint scarlet light began to drip from her fingertips—her active chrome energy, obedient and quiet, seeping into the concrete as if seeking permission to enter.
Silence. A few seconds passed and nothing happened.
Nadia waited patiently, her glowing eyes fixed on the smooth surface. Then, without warning, a sharp and abrupt pain lashed through her head like a tidal wave of needles hammering into her skull.
Her breath hitched. Her hands clenched into fists. Every nerve in her body unraveled, as if pulled strand by strand.
She gritted her teeth, refusing to let a sound escape. Pain was no stranger to her.
These past two months at the estate may have been filled with comfort, even luxury, but they were nothing more than a thin veil over the truth of who she was.
Eleven years. Eleven years of her life spent in ceaseless agony, one day bleeding into the next, forging a girl who had long since learned how to endure.
The assault didn't relent. If anything, it intensified. But Nadia stayed rooted to the spot. She did not scream. She did not break.
Let. Me. In!
That single thought burned brighter than the pain, louder than the phantom ringing in her ears.
All the theories that discussed bypassing the security system—with someone else's signature—stressed again and again. That her goal needed to be clearly expressed in her mind.
No matter how painful it was, if her thoughts were distracted, the entire process would fail and the administrator would be notified of the intrusion.
By sheer will, her mind anchored itself to that resolve—and then, slowly, the attack began to falter. As if the security system, intelligent in its own way, recognized her tenacity and acknowledged her will.
A low, nearly imperceptible buzz whispered through the silence. The next moment, the ground beneath her hand shimmered, then retracted in a swirl of smoky grey glitter, vanishing like ash in the wind. A round opening, nearly three meters in diameter, yawned open before her.
Nadia inhaled sharply. Her fingers were still trembling, and sweat clung to her temple. Her breathing was uneven. That had not just been a defense system—it had been a test, one meant to crush intruders through brute force.
And it would have succeeded if she had possessed any less tenacity.
Although, the strength behind that attack… Nadia had to wonder just how did such a powerful force get drowned out by the raw cores in the library. And they weren't even the highest grade.
She realized that she might have deeply underestimated the dungeon monsters.
Nadia stared into the dark spiral below. The darkness itself seemed to beckon to her, as if greedy to envelop her into its embrace.
After a moment to catch her breath and gather herself, she rose to her feet and began her descent into the underground.
Nearly five minutes of descending brought Nadia to the depths once again. This time, there were no lights to guide her steps—no gentle glow lining the walls, no ambient hum to break the silence. Only darkness.
Suffocating and absolute. It coiled around her like a living thing.
The air was dense with restrained chrome energy, thrumming like the strained breath of a creature barely holding itself back. The pressure pressed against her skin, her chest, her skull—it felt like she was willingly stepping into the open maw of a terrifying predator.
And yet, she did not waver.
Unlike the last time, her mind remained intact. Stable. No vivid flashbacks, no disorienting echoes from her trauma. The progress was subtle, but undeniable. Her Mental Barrier had strengthened, and it showed.
She had braced herself for chaos, but found a fragile calm in the center of it. Nadia felt the change, and the quiet pride that came with it.
Without hesitation, she walked forward.
The corridor was straight, its layout unchanged—no forks, no tricks. With her chrome-enhanced vision, it unfolded before her clearly.
Following her steps, the stone walls started to shimmer faintly, laced with thin veins of chrome energy, like living circuits.
She could sense their silent curiosity, how they reached out to her presence, eager to be drawn into her.
They were alive in their own way. She'd suspected it before—these walls had been saturated by the power of the chrome cores they protected, over years, perhaps decades.
Absorbing them might have granted her a sharp permanent boost to her active chrome energy. But Nadia refused.
To tamper with this place would be to leave evidence of intrusion, something anyone with enough chrome sensitivity would notice. She wouldn't risk it.
Soon, the corridor opened into a vast chamber.
And there it was—the vault.
Rectangular, massive, forged of dark steel that looked like it had withstood time itself. Nadia approached it slowly, her breath steadying, her pulse hammering beneath her skin.
She lifted a trembling hand and placed it against the cold metal.
Crimson energy trickled from her fingertips again, assimilating with the vault's surface like ink bleeding through parchment.
This time, the reaction was instant.
The door responded like a coiled arrow released—fast, unrelenting, and violent.
A force lashed out at her mind, something intangible yet suffocating, as though an unseen hand gripped her very soul and tried to crush it.
There was no pain—at least not in the physical sense—but keeping her thoughts from scattering was a near-impossible task.
A scream erupted from both sides of her, piercing and shrill, like nails against the inside of her skull. Her eardrums throbbed, and for a terrifying moment, she felt something warm trickle down her neck—blood, she thought.
Her vision exploded in a burst of white-hot light. Her eyes watered uncontrollably until the tears ran red.
Still, Nadia didn't let go.
She stood firm, her hand unmoving against the steel. She became a wall. Unshakeable. Enduring.
Ding—
[Mental Barrier (Beginner): +1% Stability — 29% Reached]
[Mental Barrier (Beginner): +1% Stability — 30% Reached]
[Mental Barrier (Beginner): +1% Stability — 31% Reached]
[Mental Barrier…]
[Mental…]
[Mental Barrier (Beginner) Upgraded —> Mental Barrier (Intermediate)]
[Mental Barrier (Intermediate): 65% Immunity to all mental attacks, and 50% Mental Stability. Can be upgraded through a certain amount of exposure to negative stimulations]
Nadia had no mind to pay attention to the series of notifications. But she noticed the sharp change in herself at once. Gone was the crushing pressure on her soul. The ear-piercing scream was now muffled and the blazing light assaulting her vision dimmed.
Nadia tightened her resolve and in her mind, she frantically searched for the one thing that would make it all stop completely.
Until finally—Nadia could sense it. A crack. One small, almost indistinguishable pathway hidden under the veil of the mental attacks. It was what she had been looking for.
She observed the shape of the path, mapping out each of its twists and edges, etching them permanently in her brain. Seconds passed by like eternity.
But Nadia took her time. She could not afford to fail, as again, the security structure would send a direct notification to Caelum.
Once she was certain that she had the pathway memorized, Nadia concentrated her chrome energy to compress in the shape of a thin and elongated key, crafted as per the map in her head.
Then without another thought, she guided the key to the pathway.
It was a perfect fit.
Click—
And then—silence.
The illusions dissolved like mist. The crushing pressure lifted. The scream faded into nothing, and the warmth on her ears and cheeks vanished. The darkness returned, cold and familiar.
Nadia collapsed to her knees, gasping for air.
She wiped her face. Her ears. No blood. Just phantom pain. It had all been an illusion—but so perfectly executed that her body still reeled from it.
A soft chime echoed in her mind. The system's interface blinked to life, its familiar glow grounding her back in reality.
[Objective Complete: Bypass the chrome vault security system and gain exclusive access]
[Objective Reward: +500 En Absorbed]
[New Objective Assigned:
Disable the alarm and traps within the vault
Reward: 'Trait' Category Unlocked]
Nadia's eyes widened at the successive notifications.
"What…?"
She was a bit dumbfounded at the appearance of a new 'category', but soon decided against dwelling on it. She'd find out the meaning behind this newly appearing reward soon anyway.
The vault in front of her buzzed one final time, like a beast growling in defeat. Then, it opened. Slowly, heavily, the massive doors bent to her will and creaked inward.
Nadia lifted her head, her eyes bloodshot, her body trembling. The pressure had lifted, but the headache remained—a vicious pounding that echoed her earlier torment. She clenched her teeth and tried to stand.
Then, the system spoke—
"You've done incredibly well so far. Take a break."
There was a warmth to the words. Concern, even.
"Not yet." She replied firmly.
In truth, every part of her wanted to agree. Her bones ached. Her spirit wavered. A part of her screamed to turn back, to run to the safety of her room, to bury herself in blankets and forget this place ever existed. She had endured pain—but she hadn't conquered her fear of it.
But she didn't stop.
With a ragged breath, she pushed herself to her feet. Each movement hurt, but retreat now would render her suffering meaningless. She wouldn't allow that.
Standing at the threshold of the vault, Nadia closed her eyes and summoned her chrome energy again.
This time, she shaped it like an elastic band—drawing it outward, extending its reach with deliberate control.
The crimson glow returned, no longer trickling, but swirling like smoke in motion. She aimed her palm forward.
The energy surged into the vault.
Instantly, a wave of resistance greeted her—less intense than the previous assaults, but still potent. Illusions, mental spikes, disorienting waves of force—all clashed against her will.
With the knowledge she'd learned the past few weeks, she controlled her chrome energy to fight back with precision. The traps, alarms, and lingering defenses cracked and fell one by one under its domination.
The battle of energy lasted less than a minute.
"Is it over?" She asked the system, breathless.
"Yes."
Almost as if to prove its point, notifications from the system chimed in her head one after another.
[Objective Complete: Disable the alarm and traps within the vault]
[Objective Reward: 'Trait' Category Unlocked]
But the notifications didn't stop there. They continued in a completely unexpected path.
[Analyzing Chrome Compatibility...]
[Reconstructing Synaptic Pathways...]
[Recognized: Successor-Class Mental Endurance–Threshold Surpassed]
[BONUS REWARD: UNIQUE TRAIT ACQUIRED — Eyes of the Sovereign]
[ You did not merely see in the dark. You endured it. You did not simply resist illusions. You erased them. These are no mortal eyes. These are the eyes of the one destined to ascend. ]
[CONGRATULATIONS, NADIA ARGYROS]
[>Trait: Eyes of the Sovereign
Your perception transcends normal boundaries. Your gaze now pierces illusion, distortion, concealment, and obfuscation at all layers—mental, chromatic, and systemic.
Effects:
• Absolute clarity in all environmental conditions (darkness, distortion, obscuration)
• Detection of chrome energy pathways and systemic interference patterns
• Identification of concealed traps, irregular spatial structures, and false architecture
• Passive resistance to hallucinations, glamours, and information-altering fields
• Analyze lifeforms: reveals talent grades, energy affinities, mental stability thresholds
Note: Active use intensifies the light in the eyes. Prolonged focus may generate a visible crown-like flare]
[Unlocked: Sovereign Lineage – 1/???
Additional sovereign traits may awaken through direct confrontation with legacy systems, primordial vaults, or Sovereign-class enemies]
Nadia blinked.
She staggered slightly, gripping the cold stone wall beside her. The words didn't feel like notifications—they felt like echoes of something deeper. The migraine from constantly straining herself in a short period of time was getting worse.
The words, written in English, felt like some ancient jargon that she couldn't make sense of.
She was overwhelmed, but even more so, she was exhausted. She left these notifications to ponder over at her leisure time.
Instead, she took a few unsteady steps forward, forcing her breathing to even out.
But as soon as she stepped in, her vision shifted.
A rush of light and colors swelled before her eyes—not from any physical illumination, but from the overwhelming presence of chrome energy. Last time she had entered this space, she had been protected under Caelum's shield ability. She hadn't seen this.
Now, there was no shield.
Now, her eyes could perceive the raw, unfiltered essence of the cores.
It was... madness.
Hundreds of thousands of chrome cores floated in the chamber, like stars in a cosmic tide. They pulsed and spiraled in chaotic rhythm, radiating aggression, curiosity, desire.
White, yellow, orange, red, indigo—their colors flickered like warning lights, each hue a language of strength and danger. The air crackled with it.
She stood in the eye of the storm, and the storm saw her.
Some of the cores were watchful, restrained. Others trembled with agitation, desperate to reach her. And many surged forward with reckless hunger, attempting to overpower her mental defenses.
She could feel their intent—none of them truly cared who she was. They didn't kneel. They vied. They demanded to be claimed—or to claim her. They wanted her to become something. Or her to become theirs.
And she hadn't even stepped fully into the room yet.
She clenched her fists. Was this the effect of the 'Eyes of the Sovereign'?
Nadia felt like she was suffocating.
As she watched the chaos in front of her with wary eyes, her vision caught something in the distance.
A ripple far beyond the storm—deeper into the vault, past the visible realm.
It was a void.
A hole in the world itself. Not merely black—but an absence of all light, all color, all warmth.
It was looking back at her.
Her breath caught. A tremor ran through her body. Her knees threatened to give out.
The void didn't move, didn't shift—but she felt it. Felt it studying her with ancient intelligence. As if it saw every fracture inside her soul, and considered them… acceptable.
Or interesting.
The nausea hit suddenly, bile rising to her throat. Her vision swam. Still—she couldn't look away.
Then—it smiled.
Not with lips. Not with shape. But with presence.
Nadia's soul screamed.
And then—it was gone.
Vanished. The chamber was exactly as it had been. The cores still swirled. The vault still waited.
But in the back of her mind, words lingered like a burn left by a branding iron—
"Come find me once you're ready, my young sovereign."
The void was gone, and Nadia could breathe again.
But peace didn't follow.
Her mind churned with questions, all circling a single truth wrapped in shadow.
What was Argyros—her own blood—hiding?