"Hiss!" In the nearly drained elemental pool, a holy and imposing figure took a deep breath. Elemental rivers from the realms of fire, lightning, wind, and light surged through cracks in the void and were all absorbed into his body, still not enough to satisfy the immense demand.
After devouring all the accumulated elemental energy, the figure lying at the bottom of the pool extended his devouring force into the four elemental rifts. Slowly, the pressure grew, pushing the rifts to their breaking point.
Finally, unable to withstand the force, the four rifts collapsed. With no more elements to consume, the figure slowly awoke.
"Where am I…?" Aeolos slowly opened his eyes and immediately felt the overwhelming power coursing through his body, far beyond what any human could wield.
"This power!" Aeolos raised his hand slowly, closing it into a fist. The air exploded with a thunderous roar, but before he could fully grasp the extent of this power, glowing runes began to emerge from his body. These runes formed a complex array of golden chains, which then merged back into his body.
Aeolos felt the power within him rapidly drain away, and his body shrunk back to its normal size in just a few moments. The immense strength he had felt vanished, as if it had all been an illusion.
Expressionless, Aeolos observed the changes in his body, lying on the ground and staring at the dark ceiling of the underground chamber. After a long while, he stood up and clenched his fist.
"Soul Intent level."
Golden rings edged with a faint white light appeared one after another beneath his feet. Waves of unique energy enveloped him, drawing in the surrounding elemental energy.
"Fifteen Soul Intent rings!" Aeolos noted the fifteen rings rotating slowly beneath him and pursed his lips. "And there's still room to grow. I haven't reached my peak yet—there's still untapped potential in my soul!"
"This isn't a level humans can reach." As Muria had predicted, Aeolos immediately realized the truth. For an ordinary human, breaking into the Soul Intent level was already extremely difficult. To achieve fifteen rings at the first breakthrough was nothing short of impossible.
"So, I'm a half-blood, or maybe I'm not human at all!" Staring at the rings, Aeolos thought back to his childhood and the extraordinary abilities he had displayed, and came to a shocking conclusion.
"So, this is what they call 'shackles,' huh?" After a long silence, Aeolos carefully examined his body and soul again. He discovered an intricate array of seals binding most of his power.
"A seal that limits most of my strength but still allows me to grow… What is this? A trial?" Aeolos laughed suddenly, his expression indifferent.
After his laughter subsided, Aeolos calmly walked out of the underground labyrinth and entered the nearest city. He boarded an airship heading back to Synapse.
"Fifteen Soul Intent rings, Titans, and my three sisters!" Returning to Synapse, Aeolos looked up at the imperial palace, guarded by over a hundred floating cities. A crazy thought began to take shape in his mind.
"The empire has three princesses, all said to be born on the same day!" Aeolos felt a sudden urge to storm the palace and confront the figure who sat on the throne high above.
But he suppressed the impulse. For one, he was still just a student at Synapse's Dragon Academy, restricted to the academy's floating city. He had no access to the other floating cities.
More importantly, if his father truly didn't want to see him, no matter what methods Aeolos used, it would be useless. Even if they were physically close, the vast difference in power would leave him helpless, still only a son being overlooked by his father.
"I look forward to your plans for me, Father!" Aeolos murmured softly, gazing up at the imperial palace suspended in the sky before turning back toward his dormitory.
...
Time passed quickly, and nearly a century had gone by. In the year Muria turned 560, he advanced once again, breaking through from the seventh to the eighth tier of legend, bringing him closer to the fabled journey through the void.
On the day Muria broke through, a grand spectacle centered around his imperial palace. Golden lightning, fire, and endless wind engulfed the now-thriving city of Synapse, a magnificent sight. Strangely, none of the phenomena caused any damage to the city or its inhabitants.
This grand display lasted only about half an hour before fading away as if it had been an illusion.
At that time, Aeolos—whose strength had yet to reach the legendary level—was leading his team in an underground labyrinth. Faced with his father's overwhelming power, Aeolos had chosen to resist, rather than submit. He had begun recruiting allies at the Dragon Academy, eventually forming a renowned labyrinth-exploring adventuring group.
On the day his adventuring group was founded, Aeolos declared that he would conquer every labyrinth on the Synapse subcontinent. He would become the empire's number one labyrinth explorer.
Muria, naturally, scoffed at his son's declaration. However, in his joy over his breakthrough to the eighth tier, he casually constructed a continent-spanning teleportation array, only activatable by Aeolos, and sent him outside the empire's borders.
"Why didn't you ask me why this time?" Muria mused, watching Aeolos' bewildered expression as he was suddenly teleported to the Ionian subcontinent. He turned to Mikaela, who stood beside him.
"Aeolos should have left home long ago to see the world. Staying here and causing a ruckus all the time is pointless," Mikaela replied, casting him a glance.
Although the Seraphim pampered their children more than the Titans did, once their children reached a certain age, they would arrange trials for them. They loved their children, but they did not spoil them endlessly.
"Tch, are you accusing me of spoiling Aeolos too much?" Muria chuckled at her words.
"You say I'm spoiling him, but in truth, it's you who dote on him the most! Even though you keep Gladius and the girls close, most of the resources you've arranged for them end up with Aeolos!"
"It's just some legendary metals. Why hold a grudge for so long? It's not like I'm withholding anything from them," Muria said, rubbing his head in frustration. "I'll give them their share too."
Not long after Aeolos broke through to the Soul Intent level, the dragon princess, who had long coveted the imperial treasury, "successfully" broke into it. Her sisters, Gladius and Katya, happened to catch her in the act.
Gladius, standing on the moral high ground, gave Tiffany a stern lecture, reaffirming her position as the eldest sister. Then, the three girls, under the pretense of supporting their brother, swept the treasury clean of all the legendary metals Aeolos could use. They carefully smuggled the metals to him in secret, bit by bit.
"Once Aeolos broke into the Soul Intent level and forged his three weapons, you should have sent him out. Keeping him in the empire was unnecessary."
"If I had sent him out then, he would have encountered many uncontrollable dangers, so it wasn't the right time," Muria explained. Though he seemed harsh toward Aeolos, he was still deeply concerned about his son's safety.
"If you're so worried about his safety, why don't you just lift his seal? He already suspects who you are," Mikaela suggested.
"I can't do that! Lifting the seal would deprive Aeolos of many opportunities to train," Muria retorted, giving a seemingly reasonable explanation. "And besides, it would take away much of the fun."
"You're doing all this to amuse yourself?" Mikaela glared at him.
"That's just part of it," Muria replied, laughing. After all, raising a son should be fun; otherwise, what's the point?
...
At the same time, Aeolos, having been kicked out of the Synapse subcontinent, began his journey around the world. From that point on, everything he experienced would be without Muria's interference. Aeolos would eventually break into the legendary level and finally shatter the shackles that had bound him.
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