The night was quiet within the Bureau apartment, but inside the Throne Room, the atmosphere crackled with latent, ancient energy.
Raphael stood at the center of the vast black-glass floor. The towering obsidian pillars stretched into the dark void overhead, their faint violet veins pulsing softly in rhythm with his breathing.
It was two in the morning. He had survived three grueling hours of evening sparring with Elena, whose piercing blue eyes had cut through every clumsy defensive mistake, leaving his body covered in fresh yellow-green bruises. But he couldn’t afford to sleep. The silvery-violet system timer was an unyielding master. At this point, he felt like it would be entering his dreams to remind him.
[SOVEREIGN QUEST ACTIVE]
- Time Remaining: 28 Days, 21 Hours, 14 Minutes.
He dismissed the floating text and took a deep breath.
In the physical world, he had to pretend to be a clueless civilian making slow, incremental progress, but here, within his sanctuary, he could train without hiding his true nature- that’s if he had one aside from running from monsters.
A soft, violet luminescence flared beside him as Vanessa materialized. Her dark robes floated weightlessly, and her pale, striking features looked down at him with cold expectation.
"You return to your domain battered by a mortal woman," Vanessa remarked, her voice echoing off the distant arches. "Yet I sense a slight shift in your footing."
"Elena knows what she’s doing," Raphael said, stretching his sore shoulders. "She taught me how to read weight distribution and manage space. But I’m still too slow. When she uses mana reinforcement, her movements become a blur. I need to know how to use my own mana, Vanessa."
Vanessa drifted closer, her violet eyes scanning his frame.
"The mana of this realm does not belong to you in the way it belongs to mortal Awakened. They channel raw ambient energy through crude, unrefined pathways. You are a Sovereign. The energy within you is an extension of your authority."
"That sounds great in theory," Raphael said, wiping sweat from his forehead. "How do I use it so I don’t get my ribs broken again?"
Vanessa raised her dark relic-staff, tapping its base lightly against the polished glass floor, and a ripple of deep purple light expanded from the point of impact, washing over Raphael’s boots and surging upward through his legs.
The sensation was immediate and intense, like a sudden burst of ice water flowing through his bloodstream, making his skin prickle and his heart race.
"Feel the current," Vanessa instructed, floating upward until she was level with his gaze. "It resides within your chest, anchored to the core of this throne room. Do not push it outward like a weapon. Pull it inward. Coat your nerve endings and your muscles. Let the authority of the shadow realm reinforce the vessel."
Raphael closed his eyes, ignoring the physical ache in his muscles. He focused entirely on the strange, cold warmth pooling in his chest- the subtle thread of energy that connected his soul to the massive obsidian throne sitting at the top of the marble dais.
He tried to force the energy into his arms, and instantly, his focus shattered. The cold sensation evaporated, and a sharp, stinging pain shot up his spine, forcing him to gasp for air.
"Crude," Vanessa criticized coldly. "You are trying to command the ocean with a shout. Do not force it. Guide it. Your body is the conduit; your mind is the vessel."
"Easier said than done," Raphael grunted, clutching his chest as he stabilized his breathing.
"If it were easy, any foolish peasant could sit upon the throne," Vanessa retorted. "Again."
Raphael took a slow, grounding breath.
He remembered Elena’s advice about spatial awareness and relaxation- how tension restricted movement and slowed reaction time. He applied that same logic to his inner energy.
Instead of shoving the mana through his veins, he relaxed his shoulders, visualized his body as a hollow frame, and gently drew the cold violet thread outward from his heart.
Slowly, carefully, a faint, translucent veil of silvery-violet light materialized over his skin.
The effect was instant. The dull ache in his bruised ribs receded into a distant numbness. His senses sharpened, and he could hear the faint, crystalline hum of the obsidian pillars and see the individual dust motes floating in the dim twilight of the hall. His body felt impossibly light, as if gravity had loosened its grip on him.
"I... I did it," Raphael breathed, looking down at his hands. A delicate, shimmering aura wrapped around his fingers like a second layer of skin.
"A fragile coat," Vanessa noted, though her tone lacked its usual harsh bite. "The barest foundation of the Sovereign’s Veil. Maintain it."
Without warning, Vanessa lifted her left hand and flicked her fingers.
A sharp, condensed orb of purple energy shot from her fingertips, hurtling directly toward Raphael’s chest, causing his eyes to widen in panic. Instinct took over. Guided by the heightened perception of the Veil and the footwork Elena had drilled into him all evening, he pivoted hard on his right heel, shifting his torso sideways.
The energy orb whistled past his shoulder, missing him by inches and striking the black glass floor behind him with a soft hiss.
Raphael landed firmly in a low guard, his breathing heavy, the faint violet light still clinging tightly to his arms and legs. He had dodged an attack from a Saintess.
Vanessa lowered her hand, her violet eyes glinting with a rare, subtle glint of approval.
"Your reflexes remain pathetic," she said smoothly, floating backward toward her elevated pedestal in the illuminated section of the amphitheater. "But the conduit is open. Maintain the Veil for one hour. If your concentration breaks, I shall launch another."
Raphael looked out across the dark, silent expanse of the Throne Room, feeling the steady, empowering hum of his domain pulsing in tandem with his heart. He tightened his fists, letting the silvery-violet light burn brighter against the shadows.
"One hour," Raphael said, settling his stance. "Bring it on."