The three spheres pulsed again inside Adrian’s body.
The golden one responded to Starbreaker.
The blue one belonged to Rift Hunter.
The black one was Calamity Beast.
Each core occupied a different position, but all three were connected to a fourth structure the scanner couldn’t identify. That structure had no stable shape. Sometimes it resembled a ring around his heart; at others, it became a network extending throughout his entire body.
Infinite Sovereign.
Dr. Selene Ward repeated the analysis for the third time.
The result didn’t change.
[Three independent Class Cores detected.]
[Anomalous Core Structure detected.]
[Medical isolation protocol active.]
"Adrian, do not use any abilities," Selene ordered from the other side of the glass.
"I wasn’t using any."
"That makes it worse."
Two physicians entered the control room. One examined the images while the other reviewed the records from Adrian’s initial evaluation.
"His first examination showed only one structure," the second physician said. "There weren’t three cores."
"Because I didn’t possess them yet," Adrian replied.
Both men looked at him.
Selene approached the communicator.
"Are you saying you acquired two additional classes after your Awakening?"
"Three, if we count the original."
"We aren’t counting it. That central structure doesn’t behave like a normal class."
Adrian studied the image projected inside the scanner. Infinite Sovereign connected the three Class Cores without merging them. It kept them separate, as though each possessed its own channel system.
That explained why he could use incompatible abilities.
It also meant that three separate sources of mana were attempting to circulate through the same body.
"We need to get him out of the scanner," one of the physicians said.
"Not yet," Selene replied. "I want to measure his channel pressure first."
"The pressure is already thirty-two percent above the recommended limit."
"If we disconnect him now, we’ll lose the only stable reading we have."
Adrian raised one hand from inside the tube.
"I can still hear you."
Selene didn’t look embarrassed.
"Good. Then you also heard that your cores are saturating the same mana channels."
"And that the reading is stable."
"The fact that you haven’t exploded yet doesn’t mean you’re stable."
The three spheres pulsed again.
This time, they didn’t follow the same rhythm.
The Starbreaker core released energy toward his arms. Rift Hunter responded by sending mana into his eyes and legs. Calamity Beast attempted to spread a network of black filaments around his organs.
The currents collided in the center of his chest.
Adrian felt a sudden pressure beneath his sternum.
The machine sounded an alarm.
"The structures are entering resonance," one of the physicians said.
"This isn’t resonance," Selene replied. "They’re competing."
Pain spread through Adrian’s ribs. It didn’t resemble an injury. It felt like three different bodies attempting to occupy his at the same time.
[Class Core activation detected.]
[Starbreaker responding.]
[Rift Hunter responding.]
[Calamity Beast responding.]
[Warning: Synchronization capacity exceeded.]
Adrian attempted to restrain all three energies.
Starbreaker obeyed first. Its power concentrated within his muscles and reinforced his joints.
Rift Hunter took a fraction of a second longer. The space inside the room gained depth, and Rift Sense revealed the paths connecting every point.
Calamity Beast reacted to the pain produced by the other two classes. Adaptive Carapace began forming black plates beneath his skin.
The pressure doubled.
A line of blood ran from Adrian’s nose.
[Class Conflict detected.]
[Physical vessel damage: 1.8%.]
[Deactivate one registered class immediately.]
"Open the machine," Selene ordered.
The scanner’s locks disengaged. Adrian climbed out before the physicians could approach and braced one hand against the examination table.
Rift Sense remained active.
So did Starbreaker.
He deactivated Calamity Beast.
The black plates receded. The pain beneath his sternum diminished immediately, and the two remaining cores settled into a stable rhythm.
[Active classes: 2.]
[Class Conflict resolved.]
[Physical vessel damage stabilized.]
Selene grabbed him by the shoulder.
"Don’t ever do that again."
"It wasn’t intentional."
"Three cores don’t activate by accident."
"The scanner stimulated them."
The doctor looked at one of her assistants.
"Deactivate the resonance field and seal all the data. No one outside this room receives a copy without my authorization."
The assistant obeyed.
Adrian wiped the blood from his nose.
"That sounded considerate."
"If the Association discovers that you possess three cores before we understand what is happening, you won’t be entering another dungeon. They’ll turn you into a research subject."
"I just received a C-Rank license."
"And I can suspend it for medical reasons."
"That no longer sounded considerate."
Selene projected the images of his torso onto the wall. The cores had separated again, but small mana fissures remained within the channels where their energies had collided.
"A normal Awakened possesses one Class Core," she explained. "They can develop abilities, evolve their class, and even form secondary cores to store mana, but all of them derive from the same source. You have three independent sources attempting to rewrite the same body."
"It has worked so far."
"Until now, you only had two."
Adrian didn’t respond.
Selene pointed toward the black core.
"This one is new. Its biological structure is attempting to alter your organs. The golden core reinforces your muscles according to a completely different pattern, and the blue one changes your relationship with space. These aren’t compatible variations of a single class."
"Starbreaker and Rift Hunter worked together."
"For how long?"
"Long enough to kill the boss."
"That isn’t a medical measurement."
"It’s the one that kept seven students alive."
Selene closed her eyes for a moment, restraining her response.
"Your three cores are stable while inactive. The moment you attempt to use their functions simultaneously, each one demands control over your channels, nervous system, and physical structure. If the collision continues, they will begin destroying one another."
"How much time do I have?"
The doctor remained silent.
One of the physicians avoided looking at him.
"How much?" Adrian repeated.
"We don’t know," Selene admitted. "We’ve never seen anyone with three Class Cores. The few recorded cases involving two ended in complete incompatibility."
"What happened to them?"
"Channel failure. Mana collapse. Death."
The second physician enlarged the fissures the Class Conflict had left around Adrian’s heart.
"At the rate of deterioration we just recorded, prolonged simultaneous activation could destroy your channels in less than one minute."
"Then I won’t keep three active for one minute."
"You aren’t understanding the risk."
"I understand it. Three is too many. Two work."
"For now," Selene said. "The incompatibility may progress even without full activation. We need to keep you under observation and investigate the possibility of suppressing one of the cores."
"No."
"I didn’t say we would extract it. Seals exist that can keep a secondary class inactive."
"Still no."
"Adrian, you could die."
"I could also die inside a dungeon. The difference is that my classes help with that problem."
Selene crossed her arms.
"Your confidence doesn’t change the structure of your body."
"No. My class does."
Adrian opened his system.
Infinite Sovereign had remained silent throughout the examination. It hadn’t prevented the conflict or concealed the cores.
That meant it didn’t consider the problem a malfunction.
It was a limitation.
"Show me the synchronization rules," Adrian ordered.
The central structure reacted.
The three Class Cores appeared before him, accompanied by a series of lines only Adrian could see.
[Infinite Sovereign analysis initiated.]
[Class registration and Class synchronization are separate functions.]
[Registered classes: Unlimited.]
[Simultaneous synchronization limit: 2.]
Adrian studied the second message carefully.
He could accumulate as many classes as he found.
He couldn’t use all of them at once.
Infinite Sovereign didn’t eliminate the need to learn. It allowed him to preserve every class, switch between them, and develop combinations no other Awakened could possess. His body, however, still had limits.
[Inactive registered classes remain isolated within Infinite Sovereign.]
[Inactive classes do not generate Class Conflict.]
[Class Conflict occurs when active classes exceed synchronization capacity or incompatible pathways are forced together.]
[Class Conflict effects: Channel rupture, core instability, nervous system damage, physical vessel collapse.]
The physicians were right about the danger.
They were wrong about the cause.
Adrian wasn’t dying because he possessed three cores. He had merely attempted to activate more than he could control.
"It isn’t a permanent incompatibility," he said.
Selene frowned.
"What makes you think that?"
"Infinite Sovereign keeps inactive classes isolated. The conflict began because the scanner stimulated all three simultaneously."
"Did your system confirm that?"
"Yes."
"I need to see the messages."
"I can’t transfer them."
That was true. Infinite Sovereign’s panels didn’t respond to external devices, and Adrian had no desire to provide the Association with a complete description of his class.
Selene pointed toward the mana fissures.
"Even if you can deactivate the cores, using them will continue to damage you if you can’t control the transition."
A new panel responded to that observation.
[Class Mastery function unlocked.]
[Class Level measures accumulated power and available abilities.]
[Class Mastery measures control, understanding, and integration.]
[High-level classes with low Mastery may remain unstable.]
[Mastery increases through training, combat application, technical understanding, and successful synchronization.]
Adrian had received sixty-three years of Starbreaker memories. He had used its techniques from his first day and created Starforged Body from its principles.
Even so, remembering wasn’t the same as mastering.
The percentages appeared.
[Starbreaker mastery: 18%.]
[Rift Hunter mastery: 7%.]
[Calamity Beast mastery: 2%.]
Starbreaker was the class he understood best, and he had only reached eighteen percent.
Rift Hunter remained at seven. He had learned to use Hunter’s Mark, Rift Sense, and Rift Step, but he still depended upon the absorbed memories instead of understanding space for himself.
Calamity Beast had barely reached two percent. His body could activate Adaptive Carapace and Calamity Heart, but it continued treating them as automatic reactions.
[Current safe synchronization pairs]
[Starbreaker + Rift Hunter: Stability 61%.]
[Starbreaker + Calamity Beast: Stability 47%.]
[Rift Hunter + Calamity Beast: Stability 19%.]
[Warning: Stability below 25% may cause Class Conflict even within synchronization limit.]
Adrian understood why his first two classes had worked during the battle against the Warden. Starbreaker controlled his body. Rift Hunter determined his position. Their functions complemented one another without attempting to modify the same part of him.
Calamity Beast and Rift Hunter were different. Both reacted to threats automatically: one distorted space to avoid them, while the other altered his body to withstand them. Without sufficient control, they both attempted to respond before Adrian had decided what to do.
Another message appeared.
[Derived skills are counted under their parent Class Core.]
[Starforged Body belongs to Starbreaker.]
[Shared General Abilities do not occupy an independent synchronization slot.]
[War God’s Instinct is maintained through the General Contract.]
That also explained the previous battle.
He had used Starbreaker and Rift Hunter as his two active classes. Starforged Body belonged to Starbreaker’s core. War God’s Instinct came from his bond with Lyra, not from a fourth core.
He hadn’t surpassed the limit.
He had fought precisely within it without realizing it.
[Increasing Class Mastery will improve synchronization stability.]
[Higher Mastery may reduce synchronization strain.]
[Simultaneous synchronization limit may be expanded through sufficient Mastery or compatible Class Fusion.]
The restriction wasn’t permanent.
It was a new form of progression.
Every class he acquired would increase his options, but each would also demand training. He couldn’t absorb a hundred Class Souls and wield all their powers without understanding them.
He would need to master every class individually.
Then he would need to learn which ones could work together.
"You look like you just received good news," Selene said.
Adrian closed the panel.
"I can keep all three cores."
"That isn’t a medical evaluation."
"Inactive classes remain isolated. I can use two simultaneously, but I need to increase their Mastery to avoid damaging myself."
"What does ’Mastery’ mean?"
"Acquiring a class gives me its capabilities, not the control required to use them perfectly."
Selene reviewed the readings.
"That matches the pattern. When you deactivated the black core, the other two stopped competing. But your channels still show signs of strain."
"The synchronization only has sixty-one percent stability."
The doctor stared at him.
"Only?"
"I expected a higher number after defeating the Warden."
"I expected you to possess one core like every other human being."
Adrian stepped down from the examination table.
"We’ll both have to adjust our expectations."
Selene moved between him and the door.
"I’m not authorizing your C-Rank license until I confirm that you can switch classes without causing another conflict."
"Then test me."
"You just suffered damage around your heart."
"Less than two percent."
"A percentage doesn’t make an internal injury safe."
"Adaptive Carapace can repair it."
"The ability belonging to the core that nearly killed you isn’t my first choice of treatment."
An invisible pressure swept through the room.
The security sensors reacted too late.
Lyra appeared beside Adrian.
She didn’t emerge from a rift or appear through a summoning circle. She simply left Sovereign Territory and occupied the space that belonged to her.
Both physicians retreated.
To her credit, Selene remained still.
"Manifestations aren’t permitted inside the medical area."
"I am not a manifestation," Lyra replied.
"That creates more problems than it solves."
Lyra ignored the doctor and placed two fingers against Adrian’s chest. She closed her eyes for several seconds.
Adrian felt War God’s Instinct react. The ability traced the paths of all three classes through his body, identifying where they intersected and the points at which they began competing.
"Your control is worse than I thought," Lyra said.
"It’s good to see you too."
"Starbreaker enters through your muscles. Rift Hunter through your spatial perception. Calamity Beast is attempting to seize control of your nervous system before the other two classes finish responding."
"The system already explained that part."
"The system provides information. It doesn’t provide discipline."
Selene regarded Lyra with renewed interest.
"Do you recognize this condition?"
"I have trained warriors with multiple sources of power."
"Did they survive?"
"The ones who listened."
Adrian carefully removed Lyra’s hand from his chest.
"I have three days before the Association reviews my license. I also need to reach Level 15."
"Your levels won’t matter if you destroy the body meant to contain them."
"That’s why I’ll learn to control the classes."
"No," Lyra said. "First, you will learn to stop forcing them to move as though they were one."
Adrian looked at the three cores projected on the wall.
"How long will it take?"
"That depends on whether you’re as talented as you believe."
"Then we can finish today."
Lyra regarded him for a long moment.
"I can teach you to synchronize two classes without injuring yourself."