"How are you progressing with your Rune Mastery?" Sylas inquired, glancing at his younger sister.
Elara scrunched her face. “It's tedious. I don't get why you're so obsessed with this Stuff.”
"Since when did you think I was obsessed?” Sylas countered.
"You just keep pushing toward the things you enjoy. Why can't you be interested in sothing more exciting? I don't look like soone eager to jog endless miles. I'm a delicate young lady, after all.”
Sylas chuckled softly but shook his head. She was nearly fifteen—perhaps it was natural for her to start speaking this way now. Still, he preferred not to dwell on that thought. “Just give a straight answer.”
Elara sighed dramatically and rolled her eyes. “It's going alright.”
She lifted her hand, and a Rune materialized. Sylas noted the Rune had 50 Foundations and swiftly coalesced into Vitality Mastery. Given how lethargic she seed, there was clearly more potential untapped.
"How close are you to reaching Spark Mastery?"
Elara gave a lazy shrug. “I could probably get there. But I don't like how undefined it feels. Like sothing's missing.”
Sylas nodded thoughtfully.
From her words, he understood she had already sensed the threshold of Spark Mastery. Likely, she could have crossed it anyti she chose but preferred to deepen her understanding first.
Her cautious approach reminded Sylas of how he might behave if afforded that luxury. His own days were a constant battle for survival. Ironically, despite facing one of his greatest challenges ahead, this mont was the most tranquility he had enjoyed in ages.
Compared to him, Elara had access to all the knowledge and materials he had passed down. She had thodically built a solid Rune Mastery foundation, while he was often forced to make perilous, solitary leaps into unknown territory.
By the ti he reached the Sanctum, even his ntor could no longer guide him, though Sylas would never claim Gralith hadn't played a crucial role.
Instead of pressing with a direct question, Sylas shifted gears.
"What would make Rune Mastery enjoyable for you?"
Elara blinked, surprised by his query, then a playful smile tugged at her lips.
"Food!"
She exclaid as if a brilliant idea had just struck her.
"What do you think? Could I conjure a cake out of thin air?" Her eyes quickly darted to Sylas, silently pleading for him to say yes.
Sylas paused, considering. “Probably. But even I can't manage that yet."
Cake required several organic ingredients. He could easily create inorganic items, but eggs? Milk? Flour? Oil?
At best, he could form so water.
He stood quietly as his thoughts shifted like flickering flas.
Interestingly, Elara seed lost in her own reflections too, a gentle weave of Aether swirling around them.
Just then, Magnus and Cedric burst into the room, having finally returned.
Magnus, Sylas' grandfather, appeared youthful—looking no older than 40 now. His aura radiated power, surpassing everyone in the family, already reaching Level 50. He was on the verge of completing his Foundation and beginning the ascent to Level 51, entering the esteed E-Grade.
It was said that if not for the unexpected return to origin, Magnus might have already started that progression. Instead, he now faced vast untapped potential that needed to be awakened first.
Magnus was aware that Sylas had instructed all to wait at Level 0, yet he spent his life anticipating the Summoning. Not everyone was content to passively await Sylas raising their levels.
He was a man with pride.
Having lost his wife, protecting his lineage was all that remained to him.
As for Cedric, Sylas noted his robust health. Though his aura wasn't as profound as Magnus’, the sharp clarity and resolute determination in his eyes were unmistakable. Sylas didn't need any words to understand that if Cedric had to fight, he would do so without hesitation. And that knowledge was a soothing balm.
Cedric opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by Magnus, who sensed sothing was amiss between Sylas and Elara at that mont.
Then Cassarae's parents entered, Geraldene rushing over to embrace her daughter tightly.
The room trembled as the surge of Aether intensified.
Gradually, Sylas' own aura dimd while Elara’s brightened fiercely. Sylas instinctively stepped back, regaining focus as he observed his sister's energy blossom.
Back at the Rune Tower, Sylas had once aided Gwenu in elevating her Rune Mastery to a new echelon. The technique he used bordered on hypnotic influence, though it wasn't truly hypnosis.
His unique ability to operate within the fourth dinsion allowed him to overlay what felt lie an endless layer of Runes upon the third-dinsional plane.
Technically, this wasn't infinite but a superposed condiion—a realm of infinite possibilities condensing into a singular path once observed.
While Gwenu couldn't fully grasp the fourth dinsion as Sylas did, her vague insights gave her an instinctual sense of direction.
Sylas could easily discern Gwenu's chosen path.
But his sister's path was far more intricate.
A form of Rune Mastery rooted in organic origins? Sylas had never encountered one before and had to begin theorizing a potential course himself... until Elara discovered a thread she could comprehend.
Suddenly, Sylas' Primus Luminaria Title shimred violently, making him almost laugh.
It seed uncertain which of the two it wished to follow. Latest content published on novel⸺fire
Sylas already knew the answer.
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