Perfect — I'll keep it as close to your draft as possible, only polishing grammar, flow, and a touch of atmosphere, while ensuring it stays above 1000 words. No plot changes.
Here's the cleaned version:
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Chapter X — Still Alive
All he could see was darkness.
It was a strange experience—one filled with a calmness unlike anything he had ever known. There was no sound, no sensation, only silence, and the endless black that pressed in from every direction.
Then something appeared in the void.
Seven lights flared into existence, rotating rapidly, each following a completely different path with every new movement. They looked like distant stars, each one burning with its own distinct color and energy.
Red. Blue. Green. Silver. Gold. Black. Orange.
Luca's chest tightened the instant he saw them.
He felt immediately drawn to the brilliant red and orange lights, and to a much smaller degree, the black one. Their pull was magnetic. He almost wanted to kneel before them. Or better yet, to reach out and obtain their immense power.
He did just that.j
His hand stretched toward them without thought. But just before he could touch the brilliance, the lights vanished into nothingness.
****
Splurt!
Luca's body jerked awake, coughing up the water clogging his lungs. His chest seized as he gasped for air.
Cold stone pressed against his palms. His eyes fluttered open, and a putrid stench slammed into him, strong enough to snap him out of it.
He wasn't in a cave. He was in the sewers.
A narrow waterway stretched beside him, sewage rushing along its channel until it spilled toward the guardrails just a few meters away.
Rats scuttled past his soaked boots, splashing into the dark water with echoing plunks.
"What the hell…" Luca muttered under his breath, forcing himself upright. His clothes clung to his body, heavy with filth.
He remembered the fight against Moth, Finley's overwhelming presence, the canal. He frowned deeply, struggling to piece together the gap between sinking into blackness and waking here.
"How am I still alive?"
He looked down at himself. Every part of him was soaked. His coat was riddled with holes and his talismans were drenched and ruined, but he wasn't injured at all.
That made no sense.
Dozens of wind spears had been aimed directly at his back. After that, he had fallen unconscious into the canal. By all accounts, he should have been dead twice over.
A thought struck him, and he turned his attention inward.
Within his consciousness, the familiar sight of the Convergence glyph and the orb of black energy remained locked in perfect rotation. There were no issues there.
He was relieved but only slightly.
"What about those strange lights I saw?"
He pressed his lips together. There wasn't even a clue where to begin. He had no idea what they were or why he had been so drawn to them.
In any case…
"These are problems to mull over later. Right now, it's better to celebrate the fact that I'm alive."
Tha was easier said than done.
Luca recalled the so-called "fight" with Finley. Calling it a fight was laughable.
The Inquisitor hadn't even been trying. That was a little easier on the conscience but the fight with Moth… it had taken nearly six full minutes to put that raving lunatic down.
And worst of all…
He hadn't even looted Moth's corpse afterward!
"What a fucking waste," he muttered, his lip curling. "All I got for that was a target on my back and clothes full of filth."
The outcome disappointed him, but complaining wouldn't make a difference.
And, if he was being honest, the night hadn't been a complete loss. He peered into his consciousness again, eyes glowing with excitement.
Not only had his mana fully recovered, it had also grown by a lot.
It wasn't quite doubled, but close enough that every muscle in his body screamed with energy.
That, at least, was no small gain.
He remembered the information from the Gathering. Advancement into the First Degree required surpassing a certain threshold of mana.
Bjorn, who was the Gathering's founder and the only First Degree mage there, had said only that but there were still other unknown requirements.
Bjorn withheld a lot. Luca suspected the path to advancement wasn't supposed to be a secret at all, but was one because the Empire put a permanent cap on the amount of mages. So the information became priceless.
Now, though, advancement no longer felt distant. With this sudden surge, it would take only weeks to amass the required mana.
But that wasn't enough.
He clenched his fist. His thoughts wandered back to Finley. The man's power was astonishing. And he wasn't even trying his hardest. All of it stood so far beyond Luca's current reach.
'Becoming a First Degree mage is only the first step.'
Still, it wasn't meaningless.
"Heh. At least I'll be able to cast more spells and use more talismans than before. Hopefully those guys get the catalysts ready soon."
****
Luca shook the crime off as best as he could and stripped off the ruined coat and discarded the torn mask that would draw unwanted eyes. Beneath it, his plain shirt and trousers would make him look like any other passerby.
Now he could focus on getting out.
He scanned the tunnel. The sewers were deeper and more tightly guarded than he had realized. Before, he hadn't understood why men were stationed around their entrances. After his interrogation in the church's underground chambers, it made far more sense.
"If that's the case, there are probably guards stationed here too. I'll need to get out through the first entrance I find."
He moved quickly slinking past rats and other insects as well as slick patches of moss that clung to the stone.
Eventually, he found what he needed: a rusted ladder bolted to the wall, leading up to a heavy iron covering.
With a grunt, Luca pushed. The cover shifted, groaning as it scraped against the floor, but finally gave way.
Sunlight spilled down, stabbing into his eyes after the darkness below. He slipped out as quietly as he could and set the cover back in place.
A dark alleyway stretched before him. It had become sort of his natural habitat.
No one gave him a second glance. They were all too wrapped up in their own problems to notice someone there.
Luca exhaled a long, quiet breath of relief.
He smelled like rot. He looked like hell. But he was alive.
"I'm still alive."
A thought bubbled up his mind,asking him smack a palm against his forehead.
"What day is it?" he hissed. "I hope I didn't miss Erina's appointment..."
****
Author's Note: Chapter almost a full day late. I wrote a chapter but I couldn't post it because upon proof reading, I realized it fit much better a farther bit into the story! This stumped me for a while, but here we are. Another chapter as soon as I can get it done! So many new readers recently, I bow my head in gratitude