A predatory grin, all teeth and feral promise, spread across Lyra's face. "I'm up first."
She strode onto the circular tile with the unflinching, arrogant confidence of someone who had never known failure—or perhaps, had known so much of it that the concept of a new test meant nothing.
Instantly, a column of shimmering, analytical white light engulfed her, bathing the chamber in a sterile glow. The light pulsed, humming as it dove deep past her skin, past her bones, to the very source of her being. It scanned her for three long, silent seconds before vanishing as quickly as it had appeared, plunging the room back into its ambient metallic sheen.
A sterile, mechanical voice echoed through the vast chamber.
[Analyzing Aether Core... Complete.]
[Core Density: C-Rank Equivalent.]
[Aether Purity: 85%... and increasing.]
[Evaluation: Potential exceeds standard parameters for S-Rank Hero.]
For a long, agonizing moment, absolute, suffocating silence filled the facility.
Elysia and Lisanna just stared, their mouths hanging slightly agape, their minds completely blank. Even Chloe, who had paused at the doorway with a tray of empty dishes, stood frozen, her hand hovering over the exit panel.
"Eighty... five percent..." Lisanna finally breathed, the words escaping her as a hushed, hollow whisper of disbelief. Her emerald eyes were wide with shock. "My word, Ellie... even the absolute top graduates from Aegis Academy, the ones hailed as once-in-a-generation geniuses, they barely scrape forty percent. Our families' Bronze Guards are at forty-five on a good day. The Silver and Gold captains... they might touch fifty. This... this is mind-breaking."
Elysia couldn't form words. Her entire world, built on the bedrock of established order and genetic hierarchy, had just developed a catastrophic crack.
A purity level that high was the stuff of legends, something one might attribute to the founding heroes of the Republic or the monstrous, god-like S-Ranks who were more forces of nature than people. To find it in an unregistered, untrained, gutter-rat from the Sump... it defied all logic, all known science, all established understanding of how Talents worked.
Even Orion briefly curled his brows. When they were fighting those Bronze-Ranked Guards, the System had been clear: Lyra's core was insufficient to overpower them without his intervention.
'System. That link we created...'
[Host is Correct,] the System's familiar, cold logic responded instantly in his mind. [Due to the 100% Direct Bloodline Connection between Host and Subject Lyra, the remnant essence of the Host's amplified Aether permanently fused into Subject Lyra's Aether Core after the attack was completed. Her potential has been irrevocably altered.]
'I see...' A constellation of new plans and possibilities illuminated Orion's mind.
Into the stunned silence, he stepped forward, a calm, almost gentle smile touching his face. "My turn."
Lyra's grin returned, sharp as a razor. She stepped off the platform, buzzing with contained energy. "It'll be amusing to see your jaws smash into the floor."
Orion took his sister's place on the tile. The same column of light enveloped him. This time, however, after the light vanished, the system remained utterly silent.
One second passed. The air grew colder.
Then two. The electronic hum of the facility seemed deafening in the sudden void.
Just as Lisanna was about to ask if something was wrong, the mechanical voice spoke. Its sterile tone was gone, replaced by a strained, glitching static, as if the machine was fighting to process an impossible, paradoxical result.
[Analyzing Aether Core... Re-calibrating... Re-calibrating... Analysis Complete.]
[Core Density: C-Rank Equivalent.]
[Aether Purity... 99.9%.]
[ERROR. ERROR. PURITY EXCEEDS MEASURABLE LIMITS. VALUE IS A THEORETICAL MAXIMUM. SYSTEM CANNOT CONFIRM.]
The silence that followed was not merely quiet. It was a vacuum, colder and heavier than the heart of a glacier.
Lisanna's mouth opened and closed like a fish suffocating on dry land, no sound emerging. Elysia's ice-blue eyes had gone so wide they looked like they might physically bulge from their sockets, her aristocratic composure completely shattered.
Chloe, still by the door, took an involuntary, stumbling step backward, the heavy silver tray clattering against the wall as a violent tremor ran through her usually unshakable composure.
The spell was shattered by a single sound. Lyra.
She threw her head back and roared with triumphant, echoing laughter that bounced off the Aether-dampening walls.
"Perfect!" she boomed, pointing a finger at the stunned nobles. "Absolutely perfect! Look at your stupid faces! Hahaha!!"
"Ninety-nine... point... nine..." Lisanna finally choked out, pressing a hand to her chest as if to physically keep her heart from exploding. "That's not just mad, it's... it's profane! It's utterly out of this world!"
Elysia took a sharp, ragged breath, a plume of frost clouding the air before her face. "What... what is this?" she whispered to no one in particular, her voice trembling. "How... how is this even possible?"
"Unbelievable," Chloe muttered from the doorway, her voice barely audible, her professional life flashing before her eyes.
They all had the same thought, a single, terrifying, world-altering realization. If Lyra's 85% purity—anomalous, legendary, and continent-shaking in its own right—gave her the potential to surpass S-Rank Heroes, then what... what in the godsforsaken hell was Orion?
And through it all, Orion simply stood on the platform, his arms crossed loosely, his calm, enigmatic smile never wavering. This was the shockwave he had intended to create. This was the foundation upon which their new empire would be built.
This was fear. This was awe. And this was undeniable, absolute, world-breaking power.
Orion met the stunned, terrified gazes of the noble girls with that same placid, almost gentle smile.
"Now," he said, his voice quiet yet carrying a sudden, immense weight that seemed to press down on the very air in the facility, "perhaps you understand what we mean by 'change'."
The simple sentence sent a fresh tremor through Elysia and Lisanna. Their minds, honed by years of elite education and ruthless political maneuvering, struggled frantically to process the raw, impossible data that had just been laid bare.
An Aether Core of such purity... it wasn't just an anomaly. It was a fundamental violation of the known laws of their universe. They mentally scrolled through the rosters of their families' most powerful retainers, through the legends taught at the Aegis Academies, through the whispered rumors of prodigies from past eras—prodigies destined to surpass the C-Rank limitation of their entire province.
Nothing. No one. Not a single historical figure even came close.
Chloe, the ever-composed maid, remained frozen by the door, her professional mask finally cracked beyond repair. She stared deep into Orion's eyes, trying to find a hint of deception, a flicker of a lie, but found only a tranquil, bottomless confidence that terrified her more than any threat.
Elysia was the first to find her voice, her words sharp with a desperate, logical disbelief.
"This is impossible," she declared, her gaze sweeping from Orion to Lyra and back again, searching for the trick. "A purity level like that... it shouldn't exist in Zenith City. It shouldn't exist in the entire Republic of Cascadia!"
A sharp, mocking smirk split Lyra's face. "And yet, here we are, princess. Clearly, it's not so impossible after all."
"This isn't the time to be smug," Elysia shot back, though her retort lacked its usual fire. She let out a long, cold breath, her gaze flicking nervously toward the massive, sealed door. "We should be glad this facility is secure. If these numbers... if this information... were to leak..."
She didn't need to finish the sentence. The implications were apocalyptic.
Orion's expression remained thoughtful, his head tilted. "This reaction suggests such a thing is rare, even beyond the Republic. Enlighten us. Our knowledge of the world outside these city walls is... limited."
Elysia and Lisanna blinked. It was a jarring, surreal reminder of just how insulated the siblings' lives had been, trapped in the darkness of the Sump.
Chloe, realizing her presence was no longer required and her mind was too frayed to be of any further service, gave a silent, stiff bow to the group—and perhaps, to the new gods in the room—and finally slipped out, her thoughts a whirlwind of confusion and awe.
Lisanna tilted her head, a flicker of her usual playfulness struggling to return. "You've really never looked into the surrounding states? Other countries?"
Lyra shrugged, leaning back against a console with a defiant nonchalance. "Why would we? Not like it would affect us. Survival in the Sump is a full-time job," she stated flatly. She gestured dismissively. "But now, I suppose we should learn. So, get to it."
That familiar, infuriating arrogance was enough to make Elysia's brow twitch. She opened her mouth to deliver a scathing lecture on the importance of geopolitical awareness, but Lisanna, sensing the impending explosion, quickly stepped in.
"Since our little leaders are asking so politely," she giggled, giving Elysia a placating look, "we'll tell you."
"Focus on the important parts," Orion said, his tone bringing a sense of gravity back to the conversation. "We don't have all night."
Lisanna nodded, her expression growing more serious. "The world is broadly divided by Province Ranks—from D up to A. The rank is primarily determined by the quality and density of the ambient Aether in the environment. Think of it like... like soil. The richer the soil, the stronger the plants that can grow there."
"It's a critical factor, but not the only one," Elysia interjected, her lecturer instincts taking over now that she had a concrete topic to focus on instead of the impossible paradox in front of her. "Other variables are just as important: the average quality of the Heroes being produced , the threat level of local supervillains, the strength of the ruling noble families, and the influence of their core institutions, like the Hero Association."
The siblings absorbed this, the pieces of a much larger, darker world clicking rapidly into place.
"So, given your reaction, this province must not be highly ranked," Orion deduced instantly. "A C-Rank, I presume."
Lisanna's smile was wry. "You catch on fast. Yes, the Republic of Cascadia is a C-Rank Province. Our foundation is weaker. The ambient Aether is thinner, less pure. It's why our family bloodlines have been so meticulously cultivated and protected over generations—to try and overcome that natural deficit."
Elysia picked up the thread, her voice laced with the raw frustration of a scientist staring at two results that disproved her entire field of study. "That's why your purity levels are so fundamentally wrong. In a C-Rank Province, the absolute theoretical maximum, the pinnacle of talent that could ever be born here, is maybe sixty percent Aether Purity. And that single individual would be hailed as a once-in-a-millennium genius destined to break our limits."
Her icy gaze hardened. "Even in B-Rank Provinces, where the Aether is far richer, eighty-five percent—your number, Lyra—is considered the mark of divine perfection. It's the absolute ceiling. Only in the A-Rank Provinces, the true centers of global power, is there even a slim chance of producing someone with ninety-five percent purity."
Her voice trailed off, a flicker of something dangerously close to fear in her eyes.
Lisanna's expression became uncharacteristically solemn, all traces of her bubbly energy gone. "And the people who reach that level... they're monsters. More forces of nature than human. There are only a handful of A-Rank Provinces in the world, and in them, the crime rate is practically non-existent—maybe ten percent, at most. Their power is absolute."
Orion and Lyra were silent for a long moment, processing the sheer, breathtaking scale of this new information. Their entire lives had been spent in Zenith City, a place they saw as the entire world—a world to be fought, bled for, and conquered.
Now, they understood it was merely a small, unremarkable corner of a much larger, more terrifying chessboard.
They shared a look. There was no fear in their eyes. There was no shock, no concern.
Only a cold, burning, and utterly limitless ambition. This new, vast world wasn't a threat; it was a challenge.
It was a kingdom waiting to be claimed.