Leo sat cross-legged in front of the pool of blood, its dark surface still and reflective under the dim light. His hands rested on his knees, but his mind was racing.
Despite his refusal to their refusal of his refusal to the Morningstar Ritual, he hadn't figured out a solid plan to break the cycle.
The curse from the planet was one problem, punishing the Founder for creating lifeoutside its rules.
But the bloodline itself was another issue.
Its "Strength" had grown too potent over generations, yet it was flawed. The bodies it produced could only survive through the Founder's infused "love of life," a fragile spark that kept them going, starting from the ritual ending with the ritual.
Ronan, appewred on his shoulder, pecked him lightly.
For the first time, a faint voice echoed in Leo's mind through their link: You could ask those who came before you.
Leo blinked.
It wasn't a bad idea.
The souls of every Morningstar were still tied to this pool.
He stood up and reached out, his fingers hovering over the surface. His eyes flickered gold for a split second.
Ronan tilted his head, confused, but before he could react, Leo fired a thin arrow of pure mana.
It struck the crow, and its body dissolved into red mist. In its place stood a woman—the same one sketched in Allan Spellman's journal.
Leo frowned. Blood mist. It was subtle, nearly imperceptible, but he'd known the crow wasn't Ronan.
The real Ronan was off on a task Leo had given him.
The vision had only confirmed his suspicion, making him react faster and change the plan of "going along with it".
Though right now he also realized his precognition didn't account for his full potential—just his current available abilities.
In the vision, the Founder's will infected his system making him loose control over his mana.
With him unable to respond...
But in practice leo was sure he would walk away unscathed everyday....
"I was sure I fooled you," she said, her voice smooth. "That annoying precognition told you, huh?"
Leo snorted, keeping his stance loose as they began circling each other slowly, the pool's dark surface rippling beside them. "You think too highly of yourself.... I didn't need precognition to sniff out you're a fake."
She raised an eyebrow. "Nice manners for a kid..."
They kept circling, steps measured, eyes sharp.
Leo's hands stayed relaxed, but his mind was alert.
"So," he said, voice calm but probing, "what were you planning by trying to dunk me in your budget domain?"
Her smile widened, but she didn't answer right away. "Your eyes didn't tell you?"
"Oh, they did," Leo replied, his tone dry. "I just want to hear what you thought it'd accomplish."
"You're a year late, Leo," she said, her voice dripping with accusation. "Your stubbornness is prolonging your father's agony....The Ritual is your only path....Stop this childish rebellion and accept it."
Leo's lips curled into a faint, cold smile, his posture loose, almost bored.
His demeanor leagues different from how he acted.
"Didn't realize you moonlighted as a grief counselor," he said, his voice flat, devoid of warmth.
Her eyes narrowed, and the air around Leo solidified, her magic pressing against him like a suffocating shroud, trying to pin him in place.
The pool rippled faintly, echoing her will. She stepped closer, her voice dropping to a venomous hiss.
"You're not the first fool to think you can defy this curse. Stronger souls than you—wiser, braver—have crumbled. The planet's will is absolute."
Leo's smile didn't change.
Crimson mist swirled around him filled with his mana as red lightning lashed.
He hovered above the lake, his eyes cold.
"Pathetic," he said, his voice a low, emotionless drawl that cut deeper than any shout.
"Allan's journal painted you as some grand architect of the Morningstars... But you're just a faded smear, clinging to this puddle of failure....No wonder they erased your name—you're not worth the ink."
Her face twisted, a scowl carving deep lines into her ethereal form.
The mist around her churned violently, mirroring her fury. "You know nothing of me," she spat, her voice trembling with rage, shaking the cavern's walls.
"You're a petulant child, waving power you can't even grasp, daring to judge what you'll never comprehend."
Leo flexed his shoulders, and the last threads of her magic shattered, dissolving into faint sparks that died in the air.
He descended slowly, landing with ease, his boots silent on the stone.
He crossed his arms, his expression blank."True. I don't know you," he said. "I hoped for something worth learning about you a person worth respecting. Instead, I find a coward who bent to a curse and called it fate...You're not just a disappointment—you're frankly completely irrelevant to me, my dream and my ideals..."
It was clear by the facial expression that she was pissed off..
"Since you're so determined to defy me," she hissed,"I'll simply kill you. My existence may be too faded to bind you....but it's more than enough to end your life."
The air in the cavern seemed to freeze, as a sort of invisible "domain" expanded around the area.
The world seemed to srill as immense pure "spiritual energy" filled the area...
But the world didn't freeze because of the Domain It froze because Leo's mind connected to its other working in the background, his five mana brains operating like a cluster of high-performance GPUs, processing every shred of sensory data in parallel.
He wasn't scrambling for a counterattack or panicking under the domain's pressure.
Instead, he was mulling on the optimal approach—something sharp, effective, and preferably with a touch of flair.
It reminded him of their earlier interaction, when he'd been "aura farming" almost unconsciously, letting his mana brains craft dialogue while he sat back.
These mana brains just keep on giving...his biggest fear " Interaction with people " was destroyed as he sat back and let the mana brain handle the talking part..
The words spilled out in a cold, authoritative tone even if unintentionally, they were undoubtedly cool.
They came out that way because modulation had been tricky, stripping away any warmth or inflection, resulting in what sounded like a deadpan emotionlesss commentary.
It wasn't his tone, but he had to admit it worked better than the impulsive, half-baked quips he might've thrown out otherwise.
The delivery had carried a certain detachment that made even his insults land like precision strikes, cutting deeper than intended.
Now, as the domain's spiritual pressure bore down, his mana brains dissected its structure with efficiency.
The analysis pinpointed the source: a mask-like engraving carved into the cavern's back wall.
Truth Layer, revealed. It wasn't just a decoration—it was a dimensional anchor, a conduit to a pocket realm that tethered the souls of the Morningstar bloodline, preventing their essence from dissipating.
The domain itself was purely spiritual, woven from the pool's collective consciousness.
It didn't attack his body but sought to crush his soul, smother it.
Unfortunately for her, Leo had a little thing called Soul Fracture Immunity.
Even though his abilities were still raw, barely tapped into their full potential, the passive Immortalities granted by the Multiversal Charter were unshakable.
His being, shielded by [Immortality of Concept], [Temporal Immunity], and [Soul Fracture Immunity] , was practicality built for this.
He almost felt a twinge of pity for her.
She was ancient andd yet, she was being outplayed by a seventeen-year-old who'd only stumbled into the supernatural world a few days ago.
But life, as he'd learned through two lifetimes, was brutally unfair.
It didn't care about experience, effort, or legacy.
Sometimes, a kid with a system-backed edge could win against a titan, and that was just the way it went.
He just hoped that it wouldn't hurt that much...
The world resumed from Leo's perspective, and Leo immediately regretted the mysterious tough guy act he was putting up.
Because boy did it hurt like a bitch.
The pain was beyond anything he'd ever experienced, a grotesque, soul-deep torment that made his past life's missile explosion feel like a paper cut.
It was as if his soul was being flayed alive, each layer peeled back with barbed hooks, then ground into pulp by a meat grinder.
It felt as if every fiber of his being was being dissolved in acid while simultaneously burned to ash.
Even blocking pain reception and perception didn't do anything as it was something he was feeling from his soul.
Fuck fuck fuck shit...
Those were the lovely thoughts in his head, a looping mantra of profanity as his mind reeled under the onslaught.
He wanted to scream, but his body didn't react a bit, courtesy of handing control to a mana brain.
The mana brain kept him upright, his posture rigid, his face locked in that cold, emotionless mask he'd been projecting.
His knees didn't buckle, his hands didn't tremble—externally, he was a statue of defiance, even as his soul burned in a crucible of agony.
His eyes, though, betrayed the truth.
They flared a burning golden, glowing with an intensity that lit the cavern's dim shadows, reacting to the spiritual damage tearing through him.
The regeneration was obscene, his soul knitting itself back together at an insane speed, faster than the woman's domain could shred it.
The [Soul Fracture Immunity] and [Immortality of Concept], rebuilding his essence with Wolverine-like pace, each torn fragment snapping back into place almost as soon as it was ripped apart.
It was a brutal cycle—destruction and restoration in a loop, each wave of pain followed by a flicker of relief that only made the next surge hurt worse.
The woman's gaze widened, her flickering form faltering as she watched, confused.
She'd expected him to crumble, to be reduced to a whimpering husk under the weight of her domain.
Instead, he stood there, his eyes blazing like twin suns, his body unmoved, his soul defying her assault.
Leo's mana brains, undeterred by the pain, continued their analysis.
They traced the domain's structure, pinpointing the engraving's conduit to the pocket realm that tethered the Morningstar souls.
The pain was a distraction, but not a defeat.
Truth Layer worked in the background, feeding him data on the domain's spiritual threads, while his main consciousness clung to one thought: end this.
He could collapse the domain with Logos Erasure, severing the anchor in one strike, or twist the blood pool's essence with Echoforge to turn her power against her.
Either way, he wasn't going down, one might even say since it didn't kill him it only made him stronger and more resistant and prepared for anything she might pull.
Through gritted teeth, he forced his voice to stay flat, slicing through the cavern's hum. "Nice try," he said, his tone emotionless despite the inferno in his soul.
"But you're gonna have to do better than that.... to put me down."
She stared at him for a few seconds, her crimson eyes narrowing, then abruptly dropped the domain.
The oppressive spiritual pressure vanished.
Leo looked at her, confused.
Should he attack? His mana brains were still operating on multiple dimensions in this conflict, but he hesitated.
How would he even attack?
He didn't fully understand the mechanics of soul-based combat, not yet.
Its not that he would lose, no.... he was actively learning and safe to day what they said about what doesn't kill you makes you stronger was more than true in his case..he had copied all displayed abilities and even upgraded them.
But in his books the best risk was one where there are no unknowns.
His golden eyes dimmed slightly, the pain in his soul fading as his regeneration finished its work.
"Those eyes… I had my suspicion… no wonder," she muttered, her voice low, almost to herself, as her gaze flicked over him with a mix of wariness and realization.
Leo's confusion deepened, his cold mask slipping for a moment. "Lady, what the fuck are you talking about? One minute you're trying to kill me, the next you're mumbling ."
"Are you on your period or something? Wait—do ghosts even get periods?"
"I have nothing to explain to someone as rude as you," the woman snapped, her voice dripping with disdain, her ethereal form flickering in the dim cavern light.
Leo's eyebrows shot up, his face marked with an incredulous expression.
"Excuse me? You tried to kill me."
The next instant, the air crackled as a domain expanded into existence around them—but this time, it came from Leo.
Yes, he pulled a return-to-sender, mirroring her move with a twist of his own.
Unlike her suffocating, soul-crushing lattice, his domain was refined, precise, like a scalpel compared to her sledgehammer.
He didn't smother her; instead, he held her aloft, Vader-style, her form suspended in the grip of his spiritual energy.
"Give me one reason to leave you alive," he said, his voice flat, emotionless, the golden glow in his eyes burning brighter.
She struggled against his hold, her gaze flashing with defiance. "You can try, but I'm the Primordial of Darkness—"
"I do not fucking care," Leo cut her off, his tone icy. "I'll kill you any way possible."
As he spoke, the mask-like engraving on the cavern wall erupted into flames, its intricate lines charring as the dimensional anchor burned.
The souls' connection to the real world their influence diminished, the pocket realm's conduit collapsing under Leo's will.
Leo raised his hands, his fingers curling as he drew on his mana, reaching beyond the woman's fragmented essence.
He wasn't targeting the piece of her tethered to the pool that was in front of him...no, he was pulling her original soul, the core of her being, from the dimension he'd just sealed.
That set an expression of fear on her face, alright.
Her eyes widened, the arrogance draining from her gaze, replaced by r dread.
She thrashed in his domain's grip, but it held firm, unyielding.
Leo's lips curled into a faint, cold smile, his voice low, almost conversational. "Some people may believe otherwise, but I find fear to be a very....effective motivator."
Her fear deepened as the pull on her soul grew stronger.
"Speak," he said, his tone still devoid of warmth, his golden eyes boring into her. "One reason....Now."
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Power Stones and Reviews please