Asterius sat on the edge of the worn sofa, the soft hum of the television screen casting flickering blue light across the room.
On the screen, the nightly news report was showing live footage from the frontline colonies in the Outer Reaches.
Massive orbital dreadnoughts traded plasma fire with the asymmetrical, bio-armored warships of the Nox.
A sharp-featured news anchor was reporting in a crisp, practiced voice: *”Federation forces near the Orion Spur have repelled yet another Nox raiding fleet today, thanks in large part to the legendary intervention of Vanguard General Valerius, a master of the Nascent Soul Stage.
General Valerius single-handedly breached the enemy flagship, proving once again that humanity’s elite cultivators remain our strongest shield against the three-eyed threat…”*
The news caster continued detailing the brutal meat-grinder of the space campaign.
In a war like this, standard human technology was barely enough to hold the line.
It was only through the essence and soul armaments forged in the Mystical Planes that humanity had managed to survive at all.
Out there in the dark void of space, anyone below the Mortal Evolution Stage was little more than cannon fodder—drawn into the meat grinder of an endless century-long conflict.
Asterius watched the flickering footage with cool, detached eyes.
To the original Ceres, this war was a terrifying reality that kept him awake at night.
To Asterius, the ancient archmage and master swordsman reborn in a teenager’s body, the Nox were just another threat in a universe full of them.
As long as the war stayed far away from this modest house, he didn’t care if the galaxy burned.
But if anyone—be it a street thug, a proud aristocrat like Julian, or a three-eyed Nox conqueror—ever dared to threaten the peace of this little family, he would tear them apart without hesitation.
The rustle of soft footsteps made him glance toward the doorway.
Judith Turner walked into the room, wiping her hands on an apron.
She looked tired.
The fine lines around her eyes spoke of years spent working double shifts to support two children on her own, carrying the crushing weight of a shattered home.
She paused at the entrance, staring at her son in quiet wonder.
Throughout the entire day, this household had felt…
wrong, yet strangely right.
Ceres—the boy who usually slept until noon on Sundays, who spent his days huddled in front of a glowing computer screen, hiding from a world that intimidated him—had woken up at dawn.
He had drunk plain tea, performed a bizarrely rigorous series of bodyweight exercises, and gone for a long jog around the block.
The neighbors had practically gaped at him as he passed.
Then he had come home, quietly taken the broom from her hands to sweep the floors, and helped her chop vegetables for dinner with a blade work so fluid and precise it had made his sister, Ellen, stop in her tracks and narrow her eyes in deep suspicion.
Judith walked over to the couch and sat down beside him, her gaze drifting to the television screen before turning back to her son.
“Since when do you watch the news, Ceres?” she asked gently, her voice carrying a delicate warmth.
“I thought you’d be playing those virtual reality fighting games or reading your light novels.”
“A lot has changed, Mum,” Asterius replied, keeping his tone calm and grounded.
He turned down the TV volume with the remote.
“It doesn’t hurt to know what’s happening in the world.”
Judith looked at him closely, searching his face.
He looked like her son—the same dark hair, the same features—but the posture was entirely different.
The subtle slouch of a timid boy was gone, replaced by the effortless, relaxed poise of an apex predator resting in the shade.
The perpetual anxiety in his eyes had been replaced by a deep, dark well of absolute calm.
She let out a soft, aching sigh and leaned back against the cushions.
“It’s because of the Mystical Planes, isn’t it?
That month you spent out there…”
Asterius didn’t break eye contact.
He knew what she was thinking.
The original Ceres had gone into the First Mystical Plane out of a desperate, foolish desire to prove himself, only to die alone in the cold wilderness at the claws of monsters.
Asterius had inherited this body, this name, and the memories of a boy who felt like a failure.
But to Judith, her son had simply gone missing for four agonizing weeks, returning home battered, silent, and entirely changed.
“You don’t have to talk about it if it hurts,” Judith said softly, her voice trembling slightly.
“I know better than anyone what that place does to people.
I…
I was in the Second Mystical Plane when I was younger, remember?”
Asterius nodded silently.
“I was never very talented,” she continued, a bittersweet smile touching her lips as she stared at her own hands—hands that had once wielded a blade, but were now calloused only by domestic labor.
“I barely managed to gather enough essence points to survive.
I thought I could build a future as an adventurer.
But then…” She paused, her breath hitching in her throat.
“Then your father went missing.”
The name hung in the air between them like a phantom.
*Aaron Turner.*
“He was so ambitious,” Judith whispered, her eyes shining with unshed tears. New chapters come out on novelping.com first.
“He pushed all the way to the Third Mystical Plane.
He said he was going to secure a legacy for our family, so that you and Ellen would never have to worry about money, so you’d never be looked down upon by the big families in the capital.
And then…
one day, the teleporter didn’t bring him back.
Ten years, Ceres.
Ten years of waiting for a portal to open, hoping every single day that he just got delayed…”
She wiped her eye quickly, forcing a small, painful smile.
“When he didn’t come back, I retired immediately,” she said, looking straight at Asterius.
“I locked my weapons away.
I realized that all the strength in the world doesn’t mean a thing if you aren’t around to share it with the people you love.
I took up our small restaurant, worked long hours, just so I could keep a roof over your heads and keep you both far away from that meat grinder.”
Asterius felt a strange, unfamiliar tightening in his chest.
In his past life, he had been a solitary powerhouse, soaring through the heavens alone, surrounded by enemies and treacherous rivals.
He had never known the gentle, suffocating, yet utterly beautiful warmth of a mother’s unconditional love.
The original Ceres had taken it for granted.
Asterius, however, recognized it as something priceless—something worth protecting with his very life.
Judith reached out, placing her warm, fragile hand over his calloused knuckles.
“Ceres,” she said, her voice dropping to an earnest, trembling whisper.
“I know you tried to be an adventurer.
I know you suffered out there.
You don’t have to go back.
You’ve graduated from the Battle Saint Academy now.
You have the qualifications.
You could find a peaceful, stable job here in the city.
You could work in logistics, or civil security, or office management.
We don’t need a lot of money.
We have each other.
Please…
tell me what you’re thinking.”
She was offering him an exit.
A quiet, safe, comfortable life.
If he were truly just a weakling who had survived a brush with death, he would have jumped at the chance.
But he was Asterius.
The path of cultivation was encoded into his very soul.
To hide in the safety of the mundane world while the cosmos churned with war and danger was an impossibility.
Furthermore, he knew the harsh truth of this world: peace was an illusion maintained only by strength.
Without power, a family like theirs was merely dust at the feet of aristocrats like Morgan Virchoe, or cannon fodder if the Nox ever breached the atmospheric defenses.
Asterius looked into his mother’s worried eyes.
He didn’t want to hurt her, but he refused to lie to her either.
“Mum,” Asterius said, his voice quiet, deep, and unshakeable.
“I’m going back.”
Judith’s shoulders slumped.
The small ray of hope in her eyes flickered out, replaced by a profound, heart-wrenching disappointment.
She squeezed her eyes shut for a brief moment, taking a shaky breath to steady herself.
“I have to,” Asterius continued, his tone softening just a fraction, carrying a warmth that was entirely sincere.
“Not because I want to chase glory, and not because I’m recklessly throwing my life away.
The world out there…
it isn’t safe, Mum.
You know what the Nox are doing on the frontlines.
You know how the noble families treat people like us.
Standing still and hiding in a quiet corner won’t protect us if the storm comes here.”
He gently wrapped his hand around hers, returning the squeeze.
“I spent a month in the wild.
I stared death in the face,” Asterius said, adjusting his words to fit the narrative of a boy who had matured through tragedy.
“And while I was out there, alone in the dark, I realized something.
I realized that the only way I can guarantee that you and Ellen will always have a roof over your heads, the only way I can make sure no one ever dares to step on our family , is if I become strong enough to stop them.”
Judith opened her eyes, staring at him in shock.
She had expected the stubbornness of an arrogant young man.
Instead, she was looking at a man whose entire motivation was rooted in the solemn protection of his home.
“Ceres…” she breathed, her voice cracking.
“I know you’re afraid,” Asterius said, looking her dead in the eye.
“I know you’re thinking about Dad.
But I am not going to disappear.
I promise you, Mum.
No matter how deep into the wilderness I go, no matter what kind of beasts or monsters I face, I will always come back home to you and Ellen.”
The silence in the living room stretched long and deep.
From the hallway corner, a slight shadow shifted.
Ellen was standing there, leaning against the wall, listening silently.
Her usual cold, indifferent expression was slightly cracked, her eyes wide as she looked at her brother.
She didn’t say a word, but her fingers gripped the doorframe tightly before she silently slipped back into her room.
Judith looked at her son for a long time, searching his calm face for any sign of hesitation or doubt.
She found none.
In that moment, she realized that her little boy was truly gone—replaced by a young man who carried the heavy weight of the world on his shoulders, yet stood tall beneath it.
A single tear escaped her eye and trailed down her cheek.
She let out a long, shuddering sigh, the tension slowly draining from her posture as she accepted the reality she couldn’t change.
“You really have grown up,” she whispered, her voice thick with emotion.
She raised her hand and gently cupped his cheek, her thumb brushing over his cheekbone.
“You sound…
so much like your father right now.
It scares me, Ceres.
It terrifies me.”
“I won’t make his mistakes, Mum,” Asterius said firmly.
“I swear it.”
Judith wiped her face with her apron and forced a gentle, loving smile onto her face.
“Alright,” she said softly.
“Alright.
I won’t stop you.
A mother can’t keep her son locked in a cage forever, especially when he has wings meant for the sky.
But you listen to me, Ceres Turner.”
She leaned in, her eyes shining with a fierce, protective maternal light.
“I don’t care about essence points.
I don’t care about soul armaments, or rank, or fame, or making a big name for yourself in the Star Origin Asylum.
None of that matters to me.
The only thing that matters is that you keep yourself safe.
If a fight is too dangerous, you run.
If a beast is too strong, you hide.
You do whatever it takes to survive.”
She grabbed his hand tightly with both of hers, her voice dropping to an urgent, emotional plea.
“Promise me, Ceres.
Promise me you will come back to this house.
Every single time.”
Asterius looked at the woman who had sacrificed her own youth and strength to raise a fragile boy in a cruel world.
A profound sense of duty, warmer and stronger than any martial spirit he had ever cultivated, settled deep within his chest.
“I promise, Mum,” Asterius said, his voice echoing with absolute, unwavering conviction.
“I will always come home.”
Judith smiled through her tears, nodding her head as she pulled him into a tight, lingering embrace.
Asterius closed his eyes, resting his chin on her shoulder, feeling the gentle rhythm of her heartbeat.
Out in the Mystical Planes, dangerous beasts roamed, arrogant aristocrats plotted, and an entire galaxy burned in the fires of an endless war.
Next week, he would step back into that bloody, chaotic world, where Julian, Morgan Virchoe, and untold perils awaited him.
But sitting here in the warm light of the living room, Asterius knew one thing for certain.
He was no longer just an ancient soul wandering a new world.
He had a home, a sister to guide, and a mother to protect.
And for that, he would shatter the heavens if he had to!