The moment Rhaevia’s fingertips made direct contact with the polished surface of the black crystal, the surrounding physical world instantly vanished into complete, silent darkness.
There was no sound, no biting wind, and no sensation of the rocky ground beneath her kneeling body. Only an endless, suffocating void stretched out around her consciousness.
Then, a young girl’s terrified scream echoed sharply through the quiet abyss.
"Please! Don’t take me!" the voice wailed in pure desperation.
Rhaevia’s dark pupils widened as the black void suddenly shattered like brittle glass, flooding her mind with vivid, high-definition memories that belonged to someone else.
She saw a young, fragile girl violently struggling inside the back of an unlit, high-tech military transport vehicle.
The girl was sobbing hysterically, her slender wrists bound behind her back with metallic magnetic restraints while her elegant academy uniform was torn and heavily stained with dark dirt.
Rhaevia instantly recognized that delicate, tear-streaked face.
It was her own face, but not the hardened, war-torn visage she had possessed on apocalyptic Earth. It was the physical face of the original owner of this body, the young noble daughter Rhaevia Rythundeir.
So this is what truly happened to her, Rhaevia thought silently as she watched the horrific memory unfold.
Three men wearing unmarked, high-grade military combat uniforms stood towering around the terrified girl. One of them held a sleek, humming suppression device pressed firmly against her left temple.
"Her mental rank is still locked at E-rank," the lead soldier reported, checking the glowing readout on his optical brain.
The second man scoffed, his face hidden behind a dark visor. "Then there is no reason to keep her alive or return her to the capital."
"Confirming execution protocols," the third soldier chimed in with a cold, robotic voice. "Our explicit orders are to permanently dispose of her on Training Planet V-17."
The young, original Rhaevia trembled violently, her tears splashing onto the cold metal floor. "Why are you doing this to me? What did I ever do to deserve this?"
Nobody answered her desperate plea.
The heavy transport vehicle ground to a sudden halt, its hydraulic doors sliding open with a low hiss. A gust of freezing, howling wind rushed into the dark cabin.
The soldiers callously dragged the crying girl out into the open air. Beyond the landing ramp stretched an endless, desolate landscape of blackened soil, dead trees, and jagged obsidian rocks beneath a sky smothered by thick, gray clouds.
It was Planet V-17, the exact same hostile death world where Rhaevia had crashed only hours ago.
The original girl was tossed like garbage onto the frozen ground. One of the armed men looked down at her shivering form with absolute indifference.
"Your legendary family will never manage to locate your corpse out here," he stated coldly.
The transport’s thrusters flared to life, and the heavy ship rose rapidly into the dark sky. The young girl desperately reached her bound hands toward the retreating light.
"Father! Mother! Brother!" she screamed until her throat was raw.
The ship vanished into the cloud layer, leaving her completely alone in the alien wilderness.
Then came another wave of agonizing memories, sweeping through Rhaevia’s consciousness like a cruel storm. She felt days of crippling hunger, scorching thirst, and paralyzing terror as the frail girl wandered aimlessly across the barren land, searching for shelter.
A toxic chemical agent had been injected directly into her bloodstream, artificially suppressing her natural mental pathways. Her memories had blurred, her physical strength had rapidly drained away, and eventually, her fragile body had simply collapsed under the weight of sheer exhaustion.
No rescue fleet ever came for her.
Inside the void of her mind, the current Rhaevia tightly clenched her fists until her knuckles turned white.
They didn’t merely abandon a useless E-rank girl, she realized, a cold rage igniting deep within her chest. They intentionally manufactured one.
The revelation struck her harder than any physical blade ever could.
The original Rhaevia Rythundeir had been deliberately targeted by an unknown, powerful faction. Her innate power had been artificially sealed, her memories had been tampered with, and she had been secretly transported to V-17 long before the academy’s official shuttle ever left the spaceport.
Someone with massive military authority had wanted her dead and erased from history.
But why go to such extreme lengths to eliminate an allegedly weak noble daughter?
Before Rhaevia could process the thought, a violent, blinding pulse of raw energy suddenly erupted inside her mind.
The horrific memories shattered into millions of sparkling fragments, vanishing into the dark void. A blinding surge of crimson light exploded through the darkness, radiating from the core of her soul.
One after another, the invisible, artificial chains binding her mental pathways violently snapped. Her suppressed consciousness expanded exponentially, and overwhelming, transcendent power flooded every single corner of her mind.
For one fleeting, terrifying second... 3S.
The immense, crushing pressure of 3S-level Mental Power exploded outward from her body in a massive, invisible shockwave.
Across the entire surface of Planet V-17, the atmosphere visibly trembled. Thousands of crawling Zergs instantly froze in their tracks, paralyzed by pure instinctual fear.
The ground vibrated as the planet’s tectonic plates hummed with residual energy.
Every single awakened Guide and Sentinel within hundreds of kilometers felt the suffocating, holy presence crash over their minds. And then, just as quickly as it had erupted, the overwhelming pressure completely vanished.
Total, quiet silence returned to the desolate valley.
Rhaevia’s eyes snapped open in the physical world. She gasped loudly for air, clutching her pounding chest as sweat dripped down her pale face.
"What... was that?" she whispered, her voice trembling slightly.
She raised her trembling hands to her face, staring at her palms in utter shock.
Something vast and ancient had permanently awakened inside her physical frame. It was an extraordinary power that existed far beyond the realm of a pathetic E-rank Guide.
High above the clouds of Planet V-17, the monitoring satellites belonging to the Imperial Military suddenly erupted with deafening alarm sirens.
[WARNING: UNKNOWN HIGH-DENSITY ENERGY PULSE DETECTED.]
[MENTAL POWER SIGNATURE: UNIDENTIFIED.]
[ESTIMATED POWER LEVEL: 3S CLASS.]
On the high-tech command deck of the flagship Veyr, Major General Raevor Veyr’s stoic expression subtly changed. He stepped closer to the primary HoloScreen interface.
"Report immediately," Raevor commanded, his deep voice cutting through the chaotic blare of the alarms.
The chief communications officer swallowed hard, his pale hands trembling as he rapidly processed the incoming orbital data. "General, the academy’s primary monitoring satellite just registered a massive, planetary-scale mental-energy pulse originating directly from Planet V-17."
Raevor’s dark eyes narrowed into cold, dangerous slits. "Identify the exact coordinates of the source."
The officer frantically cross-referenced the biometric data on his screen, his face draining of all color. "It... it’s coming directly from the biometric beacon of Student Rhaevia Rythundeir, sir."
The entire command bridge fell into a dead, frozen silence.
Raevor went completely still, his gaze fixed on her flashing icon on the tactical map.
"Rhaevia...?" he murmured softly.