The first thing I noticed when Rias helped me sit up was that I could see too much.
The infirmary hadn't changed - same bed, same monitors, same healing circles.
But now I could see the magic.
Not metaphorically.
Literally.
The barrier spells protecting the room glowed like neon tracery along the walls, purple-blue lines of demonic energy forming patterns I'd never noticed before.
The healing circles on my chest pulsed with soft green light, and I could see the individual threads of power weaving into my skin.
I blinked. The vision didn't clear.
"You're staring at the wards," Rias said. She'd moved back to give me space, but her hand remained on my shoulder. Anchoring. "Can you see them?"
"Yes." My voice still sounded rough. Three days without use would do that. "I can see... everything."
The door opened.
Akeno entered first, carrying a tray of medical supplies.
Behind her came Koneko with a bowl of something that smelled like heaven.
Asia followed, already glowing with healing energy, and Kiba brought up the rear with his hand on his sword's hilt.
And I could hear their heartbeats.
All of them.
Four distinct rhythms, each as clear as if I had my ear pressed to their chests.
Akeno's steady and calm.
Koneko's slow, almost meditative.
Asia's quick with concern.
Kiba's controlled but slightly elevated.
Sensory expansion. A side effect of Synthesis.
PRIME's voice came from inside my head now - not a notification, not a text box, just a quiet observation in a voice that felt simultaneously familiar and new.
It will settle. Your mind is still adjusting to the new input channels.
I focused on the tray Akeno was carrying.
The supplies seemed normal - bandages, healing potions, monitoring crystals.
But I could see the magical signatures of each item, the faint glow of enchantments and the dull resonance of mundane materials.
This was going to take some getting used to.
"Three days," Kiba said. He'd positioned himself near the door - watchful, ready. "We weren't sure you'd wake up."
"What happened?"
The question was directed at Rias, but it was Akeno who answered. Her usual teasing tone was subdued, replaced by something more serious.
"The Restoration attacked.
Twice." She set the tray down on a side table.
"The first assault came six hours after you entered your meditative state.
Three agents.
They made it past the outer wards before we detected them."
"We held them off." Koneko's voice was flat, but I caught the subtle tension in her shoulders. "Barely."
"Mira was crucial." Rias picked up the explanation.
"Her Consumption ability created a barrier they couldn't breach.
She drained the energy from their attacks before they could reach you."
I processed that. Mira - Fragment #6 - using her power to protect me while I was helpless. Another debt I'd need to acknowledge.
"The second attack?"
"Eighteen hours later. Different team. Heavier firepower." Kiba's jaw tightened. "They brought someone who could suppress demonic energy. Koneko and I had to engage without magic."
"We won." Koneko stated it like a simple fact. "They didn't."
But the cost was visible.
Now that I was paying attention, I could see the signs of exhaustion in all of them.
Akeno's movements were slightly less fluid than usual.
Kiba's perfect posture had minor cracks.
Even Koneko looked tired, though she'd never admit it.
Three days. They'd fought two battles while I was unconscious, protected me while I merged with PRIME, and stood guard through every hour of uncertainty.
"Thank you."
The words felt insufficient. But they mattered anyway.
Asia stepped forward, her healing aura already washing over me.
The warmth was familiar - Twilight Healing, one of the gentlest powers I'd ever encountered.
But now I could see it at work.
Could watch the golden energy sink into my cells, could feel it interfacing with my own regeneration in ways I'd never perceived before.
"Your vitals are stabilizing," she said.
Her voice trembled slightly - relief, maybe, or residual fear.
"But there are changes I don't understand.
Your magical signature is... different."
"Different how?"
"Denser." She bit her lip, concentrating on her scans.
"The Fragment energy used to be separate from your demonic core.
Now they're... woven together.
I can't find where one ends and the other begins."
Synthesis complete. The separation no longer exists.
I didn't relay PRIME's comment. Later, when I had time to explain everything properly.
"Is it dangerous?" Rias asked.
"I don't... I don't think so?" Asia's uncertainty was clear. "It's not unstable. Just unprecedented."
Unprecedented. That seemed to be my defining characteristic these days.
The hunger hit again, stronger this time.
My stomach cramped with a need that went beyond normal appetite - three days without food, combined with whatever calories the Synthesis had burned, had left my body screaming for fuel.
Koneko wordlessly handed me the bowl she'd been carrying.
Rice. Simple white rice with some kind of protein on top. The smell made my mouth water so intensely it almost hurt.
I started eating. Manners could wait.
"Slowly," Rias cautioned. "Your system has been - "
I finished the bowl before she completed the sentence.
Koneko retrieved another one. I finished that too.
Then a third.
Akeno watched with raised eyebrows. "Ara ara. Someone developed an appetite."
"Synthesis burns energy." The explanation came between bites of a fourth bowl. "The merging process required fuel. My body is trying to replace what was spent."
"Merging process?" Kiba asked.
I paused, chopsticks halfway to my mouth. The question was casual, but his eyes were sharp. Everyone in the room had stopped moving, waiting for my answer.
"I should explain."
"Yes." Rias's tone was gentle but firm. "You should."
I set down the bowl. The hunger was still there, but this was more important.
"The Fragment... it's not separate anymore." I searched for words to describe what had happened. "Before, there was me, and there was the system. Two things sharing space. Now..."
I held up my hand.
In my new perception, I could see my own magical signature - the purple-red of devil energy and the silver-white of Fragment power, no longer distinct streams but a single unified flow.
"Now there's just me. With the Fragment as part of me. Permanently."
Silence.
Then Rias: "The text boxes. The status windows. Are they - "
"Gone." I tried to summon the familiar blue interface, reaching for the mental trigger that had always called it forth.
Nothing appeared.
But that didn't mean the information was inaccessible.
"The interface is gone.
But the knowledge isn't.
I don't need a menu anymore.
I just... know."
Accurate.
Thanks, PRIME.
"And the Watcher mark?"
Kiba asked the question everyone was thinking. I could see them stealing glances at my left wrist, where the twelve-pointed star had burned for weeks.
I looked down.
The mark was still there. Faint. Almost invisible. But present.
"Dormant." I pressed my thumb against it.
No pain.
No psychic whisper.
Just dead tissue in a shape that used to mean death.
"The Watcher can't extract what's fully integrated.
There's no separation to exploit anymore."
"But the mark remains."
"For now." I met Rias's eyes. "It's not a threat anymore. But it's still a connection to something that needs resolution eventually."
She nodded, filing that away. Always thinking three steps ahead.
"We have questions," she said.
"Many questions.
About what you experienced, what you became, what this means for - " She caught herself, took a breath.
"But those can wait.
Right now, you need to recover."
"I'm fine."
"You just ate four bowls of rice in three minutes. You're functional, not fine." Her King voice had returned - the tone that brooked no argument. "Eat. Rest. Then we'll talk."
My stomach rumbled its agreement.
Koneko silently produced a fifth bowl.
The next hour was surreal.
I ate.
More than I'd ever eaten in a single sitting.
More than I would have believed possible.
My body demanded fuel and I provided it, working through bowl after bowl while my allies watched with varying expressions of amazement and concern.
The sensory overload gradually settled.
The neon lines of magic faded to something I could ignore if I chose to.
The heartbeat awareness became background noise rather than overwhelming input.
Calibration in progress. The new perception will stabilize fully within 24-48 hours.
Good to know.
Rias stayed the entire time.
She'd pulled her chair closer to the bed, close enough that I could touch her if I reached out.
The exhaustion in her face had softened slightly - relief, maybe, or the beginning of hope that the worst was over.
"The Restoration won't stop," I said between bites. "Will they?"
"No." She didn't sugarcoat it. "Two attacks in three days. They're escalating."
"Because of the Integration?"
"Because of what you represent." Her eyes met mine.
"A Fragment user who survived the 50% threshold.
Who integrated instead of breaking.
You're proof that their extraction method isn't the only path."
Proof. Or a threat.
Probably both.
I finished the last bowl - eighth? Ninth? I'd lost count - and set it aside. The hunger had finally dulled to something manageable.
"The Soulscape," I said. "What I experienced there. It wasn't just mental."
Rias leaned forward slightly.
"The Echoes - Dohnaseek, Kiba, Koneko, Akeno, you - they're part of me now. Not as influences. As... presences. Rooms in a house."
"You absorbed us."
"Aspects of you." I chose my words carefully.
"Combat instincts.
Emotional patterns.
Skills.
They're mine now, fully integrated.
But I can still feel their sources.
Still tell which parts came from where."
She was quiet for a moment. Processing.
"And me?" she finally asked. "What aspect of me is now part of you?"
I could feel it. Her echo, the largest room in my mental architecture. Authority. Strategic thinking. The constant awareness of pieces on a board.
And something else. Something warmer. The fierce protectiveness that defined her leadership. The way she cared for her peerage not as pawns but as family.
"Your strength," I said. "And your heart."
Her eyes softened.
The mask of the King, the exhaustion of the vigil, the worry of three days - all of it shifted, and for a moment she was just Rias.
The woman who'd sat beside my bed for three days waiting for me to wake up.
"Flatterer."
"Just honest."
The moment stretched. Tender and heavy with everything we weren't saying.
Then my stomach growled again.
Rias laughed - actually laughed, the sound bright and unguarded. "Unbelievable."
"Apparently Synthesis really does burn a lot of calories."
She shook her head, still smiling. "Koneko. More rice."
"...already on it."
Eventually, the eating ended and the exhaustion arrived.
Not physical - the food had handled that.
But mental.
The strain of integration, the shock of new perception, the weight of everything that had changed.
Rias noticed. Of course she did.
"Rest," she ordered. "Real rest. We'll debrief properly tomorrow."
"I've been unconscious for three days."
"You've been transforming for three days.
That's not rest." Her hand found mine.
"The Restoration can wait one more night.
The questions can wait.
Everything can wait except you recovering."
I wanted to argue. The strategic part of me - the Rias echo, maybe - knew we couldn't afford delays with enemies actively hunting us.
But she was right. I could feel the edges of my consciousness fraying, the new systems still settling into place.
"Fine," I conceded. "But tomorrow - "
"Tomorrow we plan. Tonight you sleep."
She squeezed my hand once, then stood. At the door, she paused.
"Ryder?"
"Yeah?"
"I'm glad you came back." Her voice was steady, but I could hear the heartbeat beneath it - faster than it should be, the rhythm of someone who'd spent three days terrified and was only now letting themselves believe the fear was over.
"I'm glad you're still you."
"Me too."
She smiled - small, private, meant only for me - and left.
I stared at the ceiling for a long moment. At the ward lines I could now see traced across it. At the magical flows that had always been there but invisible.
World 2.0.
That's what this was. The same reality, seen with new eyes. The same threats, faced with new capabilities. The same self, rebuilt into something stronger.
I closed my eyes.
Tomorrow, I'd need to test it. See what I could do now. Understand the limits of this new existence.
But tonight...
Tonight I slept. Really slept. For the first time since the countdown began.
I woke to sunlight and the smell of food.
Not the desperate hunger of yesterday - this was normal appetite, manageable and almost pleasant.
The sensory overload had settled overnight; magic was still visible if I focused, but it no longer screamed for attention.
Someone had left breakfast on the bedside table. A lot of breakfast. Whoever had prepared it remembered my appetite from the previous day.
I sat up, stretched muscles that had been still too long, and reached for the food.
And froze.
The motion had been... different. Faster. More fluid. Like the act of sitting up had been optimized without my conscious input.
Motor control integration: complete. Your body is now operating at full Synthesis efficiency.
I looked at my hands. They looked the same. Felt the same.
But when I flexed them, I could feel the potential in every joint. The strength waiting to be expressed. The speed coiled in every tendon.
You are no longer accessing abilities as external tools. They are aspects of self. The distinction matters.
I grabbed a piece of toast. Bit into it. Chewed.
Normal. Mundane. Grounding.
But beneath the ordinary act of eating breakfast, I could feel it. Everything I'd become. Everything I might do.
The door opened. Rias entered, looking considerably more rested than the day before. Her uniform was pressed, her hair perfect, her crimson eyes sharp.
"You're awake." She scanned me with the assessing look of a King evaluating her piece. "How do you feel?"
I finished the toast. Considered the question.
"Different," I said honestly. "Better. But different."
"Can you walk?"
"I think so."
"Good." She smiled - that small, private expression that did things to my heart rate I wasn't ready to analyze.
"Because you said something yesterday about needing to test everything."
I swung my legs over the edge of the bed. Stood.
The motion was smooth. Perfect. Like my body had finally learned how to work properly after years of awkward approximation.
"Where?"
"Training grounds." Her smile widened. "Kiba and Koneko volunteered to help."
Eager to establish new baseline parameters. Wise.
I couldn't argue with that. Either of them.
"Then let's go." I cracked my knuckles - feeling the power flow through them, the potential waiting to be expressed. "I need to see what I can do now."
Rias led the way. I followed, each step confirming what the Synthesis had changed.
Everything. The answer was everything.
But I needed to understand the specifics.