Adam stepped into the manor a few minutes before Redy returned.
He didn’t head to the mission hall, the proof of his run with the granulites could wait. What mattered now was the corpse in his storage ring.
The door shut behind him with a soft click and the fist thing he saw was Felecia still on the couch.
She hadn’t moved since this morning.
Her ember eyes lifted lazily then they sharpened the mont they landed on him and the haze vanished from her gaze, as her eyes narrowed.
Are my senses wrong...? Why does it feel like a completely different person walked in?
Compared to yesterday’s Adam, no, compared to this morning’s Adam.
The difference was absurd.
His posture was straighter. His breathing deeper. Essence flowed around him with terrifying obedience, compressed and refined instead of leaking like before. It clung to his skin in controlled currents.
Felecia’s pupils dilated slightly.
Her gaze dragged over him slowly.
Then...
A crazed smile spread across her face.
So this is why Angel fancies him...
Two monsters. A match made in heaven.
Adam turned to her calmly.
"Is Redy back? I tried calling her but her phone’s switched off."
Felecia waved a hand dismissively.
"If her line doesn’t go through, she’s busy. She’ll be done soon."
She rose from the couch.
The scent hit him before she reached him, strong alcohol layered over sothing darker. Her steps were slow, deliberate and predatory, as she stopped in front of him.
"What have you been up to today?" she asked, eyes gleaming. "You’ve changed. A lot."
Adam didn’t answer imdiately.
Because he knew she was right.
But before he could respond, footsteps were suddenly heard and Ivy entered the sitting room with Scott behind her.
But she froze imdiately, as her eyes widened.
"Holy Soul..."
She stared at Adam like he was an anomaly, as for Scott he had stopped as well and the demon’s usual glare vanished, as his expression turned rigid.
He could feel it.
Adam’s presence wasn’t just loud, It was condensed and that fact alone made him subconsciously straighten.
What in the world is he...?
The realization unsettled him more than the power itself.
The gap.
The gap that wasn’t even there before had widened.
Ivy stepped closer, disbelief written all over her face as her voice lowered.
"How did you get an Adaptive Conduit?"
Adam looked at Ivy evenly.
"Adaptive Conduit? What is that?"
The room suddenly beca silent as Ivy blinked slowly.
"You... don’t know?"
Her disbelief deepened. "You don’t know what an Adaptive Conduit is? Even the drunkard knows it."
"..."
The air shifted, as Felecia’s ember eyes cooled.
"Candy," she said flatly, voice losing its lazy edge. "Show so respect. I’m old enough to be your mother."
Ivy stiffened but didn’t argue.
"I’m sorry," she muttered. "It’s just— I don’t understand. Adaptive conduits were supposed to be a myth. An idealized form of conduit craftsmanship."
Her gaze snapped back to Adam.
"And yet he has one... and doesn’t even know what it is."
Adam frowned slightly.
He had intended to ask Redy about the body inside his storage ring.
Instead, he was t with this talk about Adaptive Conduit.
Is that what Judgent is?
Without a word, he lifted his hand, as essence stirred.
A dark ripple moved beneath his skin.
Then...
Judgent erged.
The scythe didn’t materialize like normal equipnt.
It grew out of him.
Black tal traced along his forearm like veins solidifying into structure. The shaft extended from his palm, seamless and organic. The curved blade ford last, humming faintly with compressed Wind and Death essence.
It felt like moving an extra limb.
Since fusing it, nothing had been the sa.
Normally, when he equipped a conduit or armant, it clung to him until unequipped.
Judgent didn’t just cling to him It rged with his entire body.
He could summon it. Dissolve it. Shift its balance instinctively.
Like it was part of his skeletal structure.
The mont Ivy’s pink eyes landed on the scythe...
They widened.
Her breathing hitched.
The craftsmanship.
The symtry.
The way essence circulated through it without leakage.
In all her years as an artisan, she had never seen anything remotely close to this level of refinent.
Her hand moved unconsciously toward it.
Adam’s eyes flicked to her fingers and the scythe vanished the next mont, liquefying into black lines that sank back beneath his skin.
Ivy froze mid-reach and anupset look crossed her face.
Adam watched her carefully.
"So that’s the Adaptive Conduit you were talking about?"
She stared at him.
But she wasn’t looking at his face.
She was looking at his body.
Because only she could see it.
To her artisan perception, Adam’s body no longer looked fully human.
His essence pathways had been structurally rearranged and aligned.
His skeletal flow resembled a weapon blueprint overlaid onto flesh.
Simply put a living conduit fra.
And according to theoretical manuscripts...
That was the foundation of an ideal adaptive conduit.
Ivy swallowed.
"Please... can I see it one more ti?" Her voice dropped. "I’ll do anything."
Felecia and Scott stared at her.
The usually arrogant artisan looked almost desperate.
But they understood.
An Adaptive Conduit wasn’t just rare.
It was legendary.
"I’ll think about it," he said evenly. "If you do sothing for ."
Ivy stepped forward instantly. "What?"
Adam’s eyes sharpened.
"Tell what an Adaptive Conduit is."
"That’s it?" Ivy asked.
Adam just looked at her.
She narrowed her eyes slightly. "Promise you won’t go back on your word."
"I won’t."
Ivy studied his face for a mont longer, then she smiled.
Scott and Felecia exchanged a glance but said nothing. Whatever this was, they would leave it for the too eager artisan to find out.
Ivy inhaled slowly.
"An Adaptive Conduit... is the greatest idea to ever co out of an artisan’s mind."
Her tone shifted, as it beca more reverent.
"But the problem was never the theory. It was how to make it."
****
A/N: Thank You For Reading
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