Even soone dull could tell this soul space was abnormal.
Veyrion was anything but dull.
He had lived for centuries and had seen and experienced a great many things. Yet none of them had looked like this.
His perception spread cautiously through the dark expanse, brushing against the invisible structure of the youth's soul domain. It did not feel fragile.
It felt vast.
Pure.
Stable.
It was like standing inside an ocean compressed into a single point, endless depth hidden beneath perfect stillness.
For a mont, Veyrion forgot to move.
Then realization struck him, and his will trembled.
Capacity.
This soul had an absurd capacity, far beyond what should be possible for soone who had not yet reached his previous level. Even without understanding its origin, Veyrion could sense the terrifying potential contained within it.
His thoughts ignited.
If he could seize this body...
If he could overwrite this consciousness and take control...
He would not rely survive. He would ascend again faster than he ever had before.
His perception sharpened, probing deeper.
And then he noticed it.
A flaw.
It was faint, almost imperceptible beneath the overwhelming purity. A subtle instability buried deep within the foundation, like a crack hidden beneath polished stone.
An injury?
"This lad has a soul injury?"
Veyrion stilled.
It was nothing like the shattered souls he had seen before. There was no collapse or leaking fragnts drifting through the void.
Instead, the damage had already stabilized and was recovering.
If no one knew what to look for, they would never realize anything was wrong with Michael's soul. His foundation had sealed itself so cleanly that even Veyrion's centuries of experience could barely detect it.
Though he could still tell sothing was off, it was not enough to weaken Michael's soul value in any aningful way. Everything else was simply too overwhelming.
His perception returned to the cauldron.
The mont he focused on it, his will shook again.
He did not know what it was. He did not understand its function. But every instinct he possessed scread that it was sothing beyond his comprehension. Sothing that should not exist within a mortal soul.
Then there was the spear.
And beneath them both, the coffin rested in silence.
Veyrion's breathing grew uneven.
Compared to the two talented youths he had abducted, the prince
with his blazing bloodline and the swordsman whose soul cut like steel, this one was beyond comparison.
Those two were valuable vessels.
This one was perfection.
A perfect soul.
A perfect container.
A perfect future.
Greed surged through him.
His will expanded, no longer cautious, no longer probing.
He reached forward, his consciousness extending through the soul space toward the youth's core.
But just as his will moved, the darkness shifted and a voice echoed.
"This is new. No wonder I didn't see a system notification just now!"
The voice ca from everywhere.
Then Michael appeared.
He stood in the darkness as if he had always been there, his figure calm, upright, and faintly illuminated by the dim presence of the cauldron behind him. His green eyes reflected no panic or confusion. Only quiet curiosity.
He was smiling.
Veyrion froze as he realized he could not move.
His soul body, which had monts ago expanded freely across the domain, now felt heavy. Bound. Suppressed. The darkness thickened around him, saturated with sothing rich and suffocating.
Pure darkness.
A dense, overwhelming dark elent filled every direction, pressing against his will like an ocean closing around a drowning man.
For the first ti since entering the youth's soul, fear surfaced.
"What did you do to ?" Veyrion demanded, his voice no longer
calm.
Michael tilted his head slightly, as if considering the question himself.
"Honestly, I am just finding out I can do this," Michael replied. His tone was casual, almost amused.
He lifted a hand slightly, watching the darkness ripple in response.
"And that I can do it to soone with a soul quality like yours."
Veyrion's will trembled.
Impossible.
He was a forr legendary existence. Even weakened, his soul was refined across centuries. He should have been the dominant force
here.
Yet here, he was suppressed.
Michael's smile deepened faintly.
Inside, his thoughts were far less calm than he showed.
When the intrusion first began, there had been a flicker where his consciousness had slipped. He had lost awareness for less than a
second.
And in that instant, sothing had activated.
His talent.
The cauldron behind him pulsed faintly.
It was the representation of his soul's core ability. The source of
Infinite Evolution that allowed him to evolve almost anything. But it had always required one condition.
A soul connection tightly related to ownership or belonging.
Michael's gaze returned to Veyrion.
When Veyrion forced his way into this domain, he had crossed that boundary. He had entered Michael's soul, and the cauldron had
recognized him as sothing inside its domain.
Sothing that belonged there.
What made it even more unsettling was that the connection Michael
had with Veyrion was different from the one he shared with his
undead. Only now did Michael realize that the cauldron could mark anything
that entered his soul, placing it in a state similar to being soul bound.
As for why this was possible, Michael had little doubt.
It had everything to do with his talent.
Talents were rare among Awakeners. Even the most common ones
were considered precious, and many possessed a physical or spiritual manifestation that represented their nature.
Jade Bones was one such example. It was known among the more
common talents, yet it remained powerful. Its manifestation was physical, as it was directly tied to the body. One of its defining characteristics, aside from strengthening its host, was absolute purity. No impurity could remain within a body that possessed Jade Bones.
Perhaps Infinite Evolution functioned in a similar way.
Except its domain was not the body.
It was the soul.
Upon reaching Rank 3, the importance of the soul increased drastically. It was where laws were perceived, where essence was refined, and where true transformation began.
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