---
The air still trembled from the aftershock of the Hollow-Touched's death.
Yuki remained still for a time, his glowing eyes locked on the spot where the corruption had bled into the soil. Even after the beast had been destroyed, its presence remained like soot etched into the soul of the grove. The ground was warped—cracks lined the earth in jagged spirals, and the mist, usually laced with gentle wind-spirits, now swirled with residual dread.
He approached the place cautiously. Despite his instincts urging him to stay clear, another deeper instinct—his evolving soul—guided him closer.
**Mindforge Heart** pulsed again, responding not to danger, but opportunity.
**\[New Stimulus Detected: Residual Hollow-Core Fracture]**
**\[Soul Resonance Pathway Available – High Risk/High Reward]**
The center of the shattered battlefield pulsed with a faint, violet light. Within it sat a fractured shard—transparent, crystalline, yet constantly shifting. It exuded pressure, but not malevolence now. It was like the venom left behind after draining a serpent—deadly in nature, but wieldable by the right vessel.
Yuki drew in a slow breath.
He extended his claw toward it.
The shard dissolved into luminous vapor and rushed toward his chest, sinking into his core like a whisper folding into silence.
**\[Relic Absorbed: Hollow Soul Fragment – Grade: Apex Minor]**
**\[New Evolution Trigger Unlocked – Divergent Soulline Path: Draconis Nocturnus Primordialis]**
> *Your path begins to branch. A soul-bound inheritance alters your core. Evolution now diverging from standard Flame Sovereign lineage.*
A flash of pain split through him.
Yuki dropped to the earth, convulsing. His scales shimmered between crimson and dark silver, shifting hues as his body adjusted to the incoming flood of conflicting essence.
His soulspace spiraled.
He felt it—memories, instincts, not his own—pressing in, testing him, searching for weakness. The Hollow-Touched had been a probe, yes. But its core was more than raw power—it was knowledge.
Knowledge of voids between worlds.
Of fractured thoughts.
Of soulforged prisons.
But Yuki did not break.
He roared, forcing the intruding memories into a shape of his own making, tempering them through his **Mindforge Heart**. That crucible took the chaos and wove it into strength.
And then—he began to glow.
Cocooned in brilliant light.
Roots from the Veilwind Tree reached out and cradled the cocoon, forming a partial dome above it. Vines etched with spirit runes twisted around the edges. Mist condensed into a protective veil as if the forest itself had chosen to guard him.
All around, beasts stirred and paused.
Even predators that prowled the distant ridges of the region turned away from the Veilwind Tree.
**\[Evolution Commencing: Draconis Nocturnus Primordialis – Unique Variant]**
> *A soul-infused dragon born from both flame and void. Inheritor of ancient instincts and fractured skies. Evolution time: Unknown.*
A barrier of swirling mana erupted around the cocoon—a lattice of soulfire and shadow, a hybrid ward that pulsed with each beat of Yuki's forging essence.
Deep within, he dreamed.
And within that dreamscape, new **Ultimate Skill pathways** began to stir.
---
**Preview – Pending Ultimate Skill: \[Sovereign Mind: Ecliptic Will]**
*Base Skill Source: Mindforge Heart + Phantom Ripper + Soulveil Resonance*
**Classification**: Ultimate Skill (Cognitive-Soul Domain)
**Description**:
The user transcends normal cognitive boundaries, forming an immortal mindscape that actively filters, resists, and redirects hostile psychic, soul-based, and memory-altering effects. Grants full awareness of one's soulstructure and the ability to fracture it into autonomous mind avatars.
**Sub-Skills:**
1. **Mental Null Field** – Nullifies mind-affecting magic and psychic attacks in a 30-meter radius. Passive.
2. **Soulmirror Fracture** – Create a temporary fragment of your soul to bait and trap invasive abilities. Explodes to reflect status effects.
3. **Dreamwalk Cognition** – Allows the user to enter deep sleep while maintaining perfect awareness and restoring soul/mind durability.
4. **Cognitive Override** – Temporarily hijack the thought patterns of lower beings within range and redirect their aggression.
5. **Ecliptic Core Synchronization** – Temporarily synchronizes user's body with the soul realm, allowing interaction with hidden spiritual entities and phantasmal enemies.
---
The light pulsed again.
Yuki's body began changing beneath the barrier—slightly longer, denser with condensed scales that shimmered between flame and void essence. His horns curled backward like twin blades, and new markings etched themselves into his scales like runes wrought from ancient memory.
Something powerful was forming.
Not just a dragon.
But something more.
A flame touched by soul.
A will unshaken by void.
And far above, hidden among the leaves of the Veilwind Tree, a pair of glowing green eyes watched with quiet curiosity.
---