His hands became a little slower.
Time passed.
The ten minutes that Evangeline had allowed soon ended, however, the woman said nothing, and Leonis did not remind her.
Another five minutes passed and... then ten minutes.
In the end, he noticed that his master’s breathing had become too regular, her head was slightly tilted to one side.
Her eyes were closed.
Evangeline had fallen asleep.
Leonis stopped his hands and looked at her for a moment.
A woman who was almost considered a nightmare among the Fallen had now fallen asleep right in front of a disciple she had only accepted a few days ago.
Something like this could only mean two things.
Either she trusted him in a strange way... or she was truly more tired than she showed.
The answer was probably a combination of both.
Leonis could wake her up, but he did not, he carefully moved her black hair away from the side of her face.
Then he placed a blanket over his master and slowly moved back himself and sat on the edge of the bed.
The room became completely quiet for a while, and only the weak sound of the wind behind the window could be heard.
He looked at his sleeping master, Evangeline’s face looked even calmer while she slept.
For someone who had probably lived for several centuries, sleeping for twenty minutes should not have been something important.
But something about the way she slept said that perhaps it had been a long time since she had allowed herself to lower her guard like this in front of someone else.
Almost twenty minutes later, her eyelids slowly opened, for one second, real confusion could be seen in her eyes.
Then all her memories returned.
She looked at the blanket over her shoulders and then at her disciple.
"How long did I sleep?" she asked quietly.
"About twenty minutes." Leonis answered.
"Why didn’t you wake me up?"
"There was no need, you didn’t sleep for three days because of me. Twenty minutes is not much."
Evangeline said nothing, her gaze remained on his face for a few moments, Leonis expected her to make a sarcastic comment, or at least for his master to change the subject.
But the woman only pulled the blanket a little tighter around her shoulders.
[Evangeline Evernight’s Affection toward Host has increased.]
[78 --> 80]
[A new Emotional Bond threshold has been recorded.]
[Deeper Destiny observation unlocked.]
[Second Destiny of the target identified.]
His eyes immediately became sharp, exactly what he had expected, and a new window appeared beside Evangeline’s information.
[Golden Destiny — Soul Radiance]
[Three months later, Evangeline Evernight will enter the Astral Archive and obtain the Clear Star Soul Pearl.]
[Effect: Strengthens the structure of the Soul and greatly increases Insight Ability.]
His gaze stayed on the last two words.
Insight Ability.
In this world, power did not only depend on muscles, Mana, or Level, the Core could determine the amount and quality of Mana.
The body could increase endurance, speed, and physical strength.
But Insight was something different, two people could practice exactly the same technique for the same amount of time.
One could still remain at the Beginner stage after five years, while the other could reach the Master stage within one year.
The main difference was the Soul.
The stronger and clearer the Soul was, the faster a person could understand the structure of Skills, the flow of Mana, movement laws, and the hidden logic behind techniques.
The stages of Skill mastery were also clearly defined.
Beginner, Professional, Master, Small Perfection, Great Perfection, and finally... Absolute Perfection.
Even many Awakened could not bring a high-rank Skill to Great Perfection during their entire lives.
Absolute Perfection? For most people, it was something they only heard about in stories about the heroes of past generations.
And now... an opportunity to directly strengthen the Soul was in front of Leonis.
[Destiny successfully copied.]
[Clear Star Soul Pearl]
[10,000-fold amplification beginning.]
[Upgrading the essence of Destiny...]
[Amplification successfully completed.]
[Immortal Insight Soul]
[Rank: SSS]
[Abilities:]
[Increases the user’s Insight Ability by 10,000%.]
[Your memory will never forget anything.]
[Increases analysis speed and mental simulation.]
[Increases resistance against spiritual and mental interference.]
[Allows the user to enter Deep Insight mode while practicing.]
[Note: This Soul structure does not give the host ready-made answers. It increases learning speed and understanding, but progress still requires observation, practice, and experience.]
The ability to understand, to understand faster than others, to learn faster than others, and to correct mistakes before they became habits that lasted for years.
At that exact moment, an invisible wave passed through the depths of his mind.
Leonis felt for a moment as if something inside his head had broken.
But there was no pain, it was more like breaking a dirty piece of glass.
His thoughts had become clear, the memories that had previously been only a collection of images now had structure.
He remembered the father of this body.
A tall man holding a black sword, repeating a simple movement again and again in the Habsburg family courtyard.
The previous Leonis had only remembered the movement, step forward, turn of the waist, movement of the shoulder, and horizontal slash.
But now Leonis saw something else, why the weight remained on the back leg before the attack, why the waist moved before the shoulder, and why Mana had to enter the blade right before contact, not earlier.
If the shoulder moved too early, the enemy could read the path of the attack, if Mana was released too early, part of the power would be wasted before the impact.
All those details that had previously only been copied now had meaning.
His eyes became slightly brighter.
"So this is what they mean by Insight Ability." Leonis whispered quietly.
"What did you say?" Evangeline, who had now stood up, asked.
He turned his gaze back to her.
"I said it seems resting did you good." He answered with an innocent face.
His master looked at him suspiciously, but said nothing, she removed the blanket from her shoulders and returned it to its previous place.
As she approached the door, she stopped for a moment.
"Leonis." she said without turning around.
"Yes, Master?" Leonis answered.
"What happened here today does not leave this room, and I also don’t think there is any need for me to say anything about those three days." Evangeline said in a cold voice.
"You mean the massage today?" he asked in a very serious tone.
The atmosphere in the room became cold, and she slowly turned her head, her gaze was so dangerous that even he thought for a moment about whether continuing the joke was worth it.
"I mean the treatment, Master." He immediately corrected his sentence.
"Be a good boy." Evangeline gave him a very beautiful and very threatening smile.
The next moment, she left the room and the door slowly closed.
"She’s a scary woman." Leonis looked at the same spot for a few seconds and then muttered.
Apart from being scary, her mood was also very unstable, one moment she could be the kindest person in the world, and the next moment the scariest.
One moment she could be the horniest woman possible in bed, and the next moment? She could hate anything horny.
What kind of paradox was this?
[Affection: 80]
"...But no matter how hard she tries to hide it, she can’t." He smiled.
It was time to consume the Elixir.
He took out the small bottle of Elixir, the white and golden liquid inside the glass gave off a weak light with every movement
He opened the bottle, it had no special smell, and he drank the Elixir in one go.
For one second... nothing happened.
"Hmm?"
In the next second, he felt as if a sun had exploded inside his stomach.
His eyes opened wide, and wild heat spread from his stomach to his chest and then through his entire body.
The veins in his neck became visible, the Core that had only been repaired three days ago suddenly shook, and a muffled cracking sound came from inside his chest.
No.
His Core was breaking again, but this time, the destruction was not a mistake... the Elixir itself was breaking it apart.
The outer layer of the Core cracked... then the second layer.
Compressed Mana burst out through the cracks and entered the energy paths of his body like thousands of hot blades.
If Leonis lost control, this energy could tear his Mana paths apart from the inside.
But at that exact moment, his new Soul reacted.
[Deep Insight Mode activated.]
Leonis’s mental world changed, the pain did not disappear, but it was no longer only pain, he could understand it.
Every flow of Mana, every path, every layer of the Core, the Elixir was not simply destroying the Core, it was separating the impurities that had become trapped in its structure during the first Awakening and then rebuilding the foundation from the beginning.