While the academy slumbered, its newest students dreaming of glory, Aiden stood alone in the moonlit training ground. The wind was still, but inside him, a storm raged.
This place… he had barely set foot in it during his previous life. But tonight, he would begin his journey properly—no shortcuts, no arrogance. Just pain, sweat, and resolve.
He rolled up his sleeves, took a deep breath, and began the forbidden practice of Resonant Fracturing—a brutal method of forcefully breaking muscle and bone microstructures to make room for more mana absorption. It wasn't just training. It was agony.
The method had been discovered far in the future, in a shattered world barely clinging to hope. When a Category 6 Gate had opened in India twelve years from now, it brought destruction no Level 9 could stop. He had survived—barely—and fled to America, the last stand of humanity.
There, amidst desperation and ruin, Aiden had learned the truth. He, who had taken twelve years to crawl to Level 3, reached Level 5 in just two years through Resonant Fracturing. It was suicidal for most, but it worked. It had to work again—because this time, he couldn't afford to fall behind.
To keep up with 4-star monsters… I have to reach Level 3 within a year and a half.
Lightning alone wouldn't be enough. And Chaos… Chaos refused to respond. No matter what he tried, it remained dormant. As if it was waiting for something. Or watching.
To distract himself from the pain, Aiden let his thoughts drift—to the countless truths he had uncovered. Things no one in this era could fathom.
The world wasn't safe.
The Sovereign, the being that emerged from the Category 6 Gate in Antarctica, remained trapped there—thankfully. But his Level 9 minions? They were free. And they had been waging a hidden war against humanity for over a century.
India didn't have a Sovereign, but it had two Level 9s—the current King, and the enigmatic Shadow Queen. Once, there were four. His parents—Den and Elisa—had been among them.
But they had lost.
Defeated by the Sovereign's forces, they were returned, not as heroes, but as puppets, cursed and controlled to destroy the very nation they once protected.
Only by shattering their own meridians, destroying their cultivation, had they broken free. That's why they were now "only" Level 4. That's why they were aging. Not because of time—but because of sacrifice.
And they bore that burden silently.
Even Emilia… Aiden had once believed she was an orphan. But the truth? She was the hidden daughter of the Shadow Queen. Hidden to protect her from the enemies of her mother—and from the Sovereign's gaze.
His mind burned with knowledge. Of this world. Of other worlds. Of truths too ancient for most to grasp.
In the final battle of his past life, Aiden had fallen into a Category 6 Gate. There, as a slave, tortured and discarded, he had learned the most terrifying truth of all:
The Sovereign wasn't the end.
There were powers beyond Level 9. Beings beyond Sovereigns. The true rulers of the multiverse. Gods that toyed with galaxies. And at the center of it all—Chaos and Creation, the primordial elements, the origin of everything.
Chaos… it isn't just a power. It's a key.
Aiden gritted his teeth as his arm snapped, then healed. Bones resetting. Muscles rebuilding. A process that would have left any normal person crippled forever.
He wiped the blood from his lip and reached for a vial—a stolen potion, swiped from his father's guild stock. It would numb the pain. A little. Maybe.
He had to walk this path alone. For now. He couldn't reveal his parents' true past. Not yet. They wanted to live a quiet life, away from politics and enemies. Even if they were over 200 years old and carried the scars of betrayal.
And Chaos… he couldn't afford to reveal it either.
Not until he understood it.
As dawn approached, Aiden stood up, body aching, but gaze steady.
He had work to do.
This was only the beginning.