That admission only seed to fuel his amusent. "Oh? So it’s my fault they’re this big?" he teased.
"Rael!" Annie hissed, covering her chest with both hands. "Don’t say things like that!"
Julian chuckled, leaning back casually. "I’m just saying, you’ve got to admit it’s impressive. Genetics, right?"
Annie blushed, yanking the blanket over her head. "Stop talking before I throw this pillow at you."
"That’d be hard to do," he said, grinning. "You’d have to reach past your—"
"RAEL!"
Julian burst out laughing, raising his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay! I’ll stop. You’re scary in the morning.
"From under the blanket ca a muffled, "Good. Now let be."
He smiled, shaking his head as he grabbed a cushion and sat cross-legged on the floor. The early morning light spilled into the room. Annie peeked out to see him closing his eyes, his breathing slowing until the air around him seed to hum.
"Don’t tell you’re ditating now," she muttered.
"Cultivating," he corrected without opening his eyes. "Big difference. I need to understand how the Heaven’s energy flows."
Annie sighed, watching him with a mix of fondness and disbelief. "Of course you do. Right after teasing to death."
Julian grinned faintly. "Balance. Can’t cultivate without humor."
The mont the room settled into silence, Julian closed his eyes and took a deep breathe.
He extended his senses, instinctively trying to grasp the energy around him as he once did with mana. Yet, as soon as his aura brushed against it, a cold, immovable barrier pushed back.
Julian’s brows furrowed. He pressed harder, willing the energy to bend, to yield to his authority, but it remained unmovable.
"Host," the system’s voice echoed softly, "you are approaching this the wrong way. You cannot absorb this force by re strength. You must gain its recognition first."
Julian exhaled slowly and took the first step toward understanding this strange energy.
Rising from the floor, he walked to the window, peering across the void of floating islands. The heaven’s energy flowed around them like a living entity.
He extended a hand, and the air seed to thrum in response, but when he tried to pull the energy into himself, it still remained untouchable.
Julian narrowed his eyes, letting the energy swirl around him. "Recognition..."
"It ans respect," the system replied. "You must show worthiness. You must demonstrate that your presence here does not threaten the natural order, and that your soul is ready to bear the weight of this power."
Julian closed his eyes, and allowed his senses to expand. The energy was alive—swirling and moving on its own—far different from the raw mana he had once known in his previous life.
He felt it probing his mind, inspecting mories, emotions, desires. He shivered, the thrill of challenge coursing through him.
Just as he was about to feel the energy—right when it seed to open to him—the world abruptly shifted.
The warmth of the morning light vanished. The sound of wind outside, the faint creak of the bed, even the rhythm of his own breathing—all of it faded. Darkness swallowed everything.
Julian’s eyes snapped open. He stood in a space without horizon or any dinsions. There was no up or down, no ground beneath his feet, yet he didn’t fall. A strange weightlessness filled his being, like his body and soul were scratched from reality itself.
He glanced around, instinctively extending his senses, but there was nothing to sense.
No mana, No Heaven’s energy, no sound. Just void.
Then, he saw it.
A faint light glowed ahead, distant but unmistakable. Upon a closer inspection Julian could make out a silhouette of a figure standing amid the black.
"Hello?" Julian called, his voice strangely muffled.
No answer.
He began to walk. He could not feel himself moving, but each motion carried him forward regardless. The closer he got, the more defined the figure beca—a person, slim and still, wrapped in a faint light that flickered like candle fla.
A woman.
Her back was turned to him, long hair cascading down to her waist. She stood perfectly still, her silhouette so calm it felt wrong in the empty darkness.
"Who are you?" Julian asked again, slower this ti. "Are you the source of this place?"
No response. Not even a flinch in her body.
Sothing about her silence unsettled him.
Julian frowned and took another step. "I said—"
He froze.
For just a second, the faint light shifted, and he saw it—her bare shoulder, pale as moonlight. The sight drew him in, despite the gnawing tension crawling up his spine.
He reached out, close enough to touch her now. "Who are you?" he whispered again.
Still, she didn’t turn.
But suddenly a whisper brushed his ear.
"...You shouldn’t be here."
Julian froze, every muscle in his body locking. He could recognize this voice even in his sleep.
"Mother...?" he whispered, disbelief lacing every words.
His hand shot forward, reaching toward her. But before he could touch her, the world warped violently. A dizzying emptiness swallowed him, and in an instant, he was flung backward. His mind spun as he glanced around—there was nothing. Just a void stretching infinitely in all directions.
Then she appeared again. The figure of a woman, unmistakably familiar, standing in the black nothingness. She hadn’t turned yet, but the sight alone made his heart stutter.
Julian took a cautious step forward. "Mother... what are you doing here?"
Still, she didn’t respond. She didn’t even move. Julian’s hand stretched instinctively toward her, desperate for confirmation, for touch, for proof that this was real. But the mont his fingers brushed air where her body should have been, the space distorted and he was yanked backward once more.
He stumbled, panic rising like a tide. "What... what’s happening?" he murmured.
Finally, she turned. Slowly. Her red hair shimred in the darkness, cascading down her bare back and her blue eyes, locked onto his.
She was completely naked.
Julian’s whole world crumbled.
Her hands were raised, holding sothing. Sothing that made his blood run cold before his mind could even comprehend it.
"Mom... what?" he whispered, horror clawing at his voice. His knees weakened, threatening to buckle as his gaze fell to the shape handing in her hands.
It was his father. Alden. His father’s head.
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