Chapter 70 – The Song of the Blade and the Dragon's Silence
In the quiet sanctuary of his private forge, Lakan sat with the two Kampilans laid across his knees. Araw, the golden blade, glowed with a steady, solar heat. Buan, the silver blade, felt cool and hummed with the frequency of the moon.
Lakan closed his eyes, entering his Spirit Sea. Suddenly, the world shifted. Two ethereal forms manifested before him. Araw appeared as a proud, sharp-eyed hawk made of liquid gold, while Buan was a sleek, silver bird with feathers that shimmered like starlight.
"Finally," Buan's female voice echoed in his mind—sassy, sharp, and impatient. "I thought you'd forgotten we were more than just letter-openers, Lakan! Do you have any idea how boring it is waiting for you to stop flirting with the Empress and start swinging us?"
Araw let out a low, vibrating warble, a more stoic presence. "The boy has grown, Buan. His Diwa is now large enough to house our true rhythms."
Lakan smirked. "I haven't forgotten. I needed my Fist Intent to mature before I could truly hear your songs." He reached out, touching their spectral wings. "From today, you aren't just tools. You are my extensions. When I strike, you sing. When I move, you hunt."
The personality of 'Buan' is protective and sassy, she literally pecks at the flow of enemy soul power through the silver blade, disrupting their techniques before they can even manifest.
•••••••••••
While Lakan bonded with his blades, a group of his first-year students was on a field mission in the Sunset Forest. They were accompanied by a Thunder-Crested Eagle, a bird that had volunteered to become a Soul Spirit for a talented commoner student.
"Stop!" a thunderous voice commanded.
Five members of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan, led by an arrogant Soul Saint elder named Yu Tianheng (a distant relative of the main line), descended from the trees. Their bodies crackled with draconic electricity.
"That Eagle has the Thunder-Heart we need for our young master's breakthrough," the elder sneered. "Hand it over, Hall brats. A beast is meant to be hunted, not 'befriended' like a pet."
The student, a young girl named Nina, stood her ground. Her soul ring flared—a deep, vibrant purple provided by the Eagle. "The Eagle is a Soul Spirit. He has a covenant with the Hall. To touch him is to touch the Sovereign."
"The Sovereign is a child!" the elder laughed, his arm transforming into a dragon claw. He lunged, intending to forcibly extract the beast's essence.
Before the dragon claw could reach the girl, the space between them fractured. Lakan appeared, not through speed, but through a Void-Motion skip. He didn't even draw his swords. He simply stood there, his silver eyes cold.
"You speak of the Old Era as if it still exists," Lakan said.
The Blue Lightning elder roared, unleashing his Tyrant Dragon Domain. The air filled with the deafening sound of dragon roars, intended to paralyze the opponent's spirit.
Lakan didn't flinch. He used his Fist Intent, but instead of a strike, he projected it outward as a wave of absolute authority. Lakan punishes their arrogance with a Soul Silence technique.
"Be quiet," Lakan commanded.
The Ibong Adarna manifested behind him for a split second, emitting a frequency that perfectly cancelled out the frequency of the dragon's roar. To the horror of the clan members, their Martial Souls—the proud Tyrant Dragons—suddenly tucked their tails and went silent. The blue lightning vanished. Their soul power became stagnant, refusing to answer their call.
"My... my soul power! It's gone!" the elder gasped, falling to his knees as his dragon transformation forcibly reverted.
"It is not gone," Lakan said, walking past him to pat the Thunder-Crested Eagle. "It is simply afraid. Even a dragon knows when a God is speaking. Go back to your mountain. Tell your leader that the next time you reclaim a spirit of the Hall, I will make the silence permanent."
••••••••
Later that evening, back at the Academy, a familiar figure waited for Lakan in the lunar garden. Qian Renxue, still in her disguise as Xue Qinghe, stood by a fountain, her expression troubled.
"You made quite a scene in the forest today, Lakan," she said, her voice lacking its usual princely mask.
Lakan leaned against a pillar, Buan's silver hilt glinting at his waist. "The dragons needed to learn that the sky has a new owner. Why the long face, Renxue? Are you worried your Angel will be jealous of a Bird?"
Renxue turned to him, her golden eyes reflecting the moon. A private moment between her and Lakan reveals her internal struggle. "The Angel Goddess spoke to my grandfather. She is... intrigued by you. But she is also a Goddess of Order. The world you are building—where beasts and humans share a soul—it defies the natural hierarchy she established."
Lakan stepped closer, entering her personal space. He could see the cracks in her resolve. The world he was building wasn't the dark, chaotic place her grandfather feared; it was vibrant, efficient, and filled with a beauty the old Sacrificial system could never match.
"Hierarchy is just a word used by those at the top to stay there," Lakan whispered, his voice warm and dangerously close to her ear. "The Angel Goddess wants Order? I am giving her a world where power doesn't come from a pile of bones. Isn't that the ultimate form of Order?"
Renxue felt her heartbeat quicken. She was a daughter of the Heavens, yet standing before Lakan, she felt the magnetic pull of the Earth—of a tangible, breathing future. Her internal struggle was fading, replaced by a growing fascination with the man who dared to look Gods in the eye and tell them they were obsolete.
"You're a dangerous man, Lakan Diwa," she murmured, her hand almost reaching out to touch his chest, where the warmth of his core hummed.
"And you're a very beautiful Prince," Lakan teased, that naughty irony returning to his gaze. "I wonder how long it'll take before the wings on your back want to fly alongside mine."