Warmth.
That was the first thing Ethan felt. Not light, not sound, not thought — just warmth pressing in from every direction. For a moment, he thought he was still floating in that endless white void… until sound returned.
Muffled voices. A faint echo. Strange, melodic, layered — and nothing like English.
His eyelids were heavy, impossibly heavy, but his senses sharpened instinctively. Everything smelled different. The air was thicker, heavier, rich with something his brain didn't have a word for.
And then it hit him.
Breathing. He was… breathing.
"Vitals stable," AURA's voice whispered faintly in his mind, fragmented, almost static-like. "Host consciousness… reinitializing."
Ethan froze — or at least, he would have, if his body obeyed him. That voice… AURA survived? How?
Before he could think, another sound cut through the haze: a woman's voice, soft and melodic, tinged with exhaustion but carrying strange authority.
"…My son."
The words slipped past him, but the tone resonated — warmth layered with something ancient. A shadow fell over him, and Ethan forced his eyes open for the first time.
The world swam.
Above him leaned a woman of impossible beauty. Long raven-black hair cascaded past her shoulders, framing skin pale as moonlight. Her crimson eyes glowed faintly, and her fangs — fangs — caught the low light of the chamber as she smiled softly down at him.
"You are Veyron," she whispered, brushing a cold hand against his tiny cheek. "And nothing in this world will harm you while I draw breath."
Ethan blinked slowly. He tried to speak — to question, to demand answers — but only a faint whimper escaped. His newborn lungs betrayed him.
AURA's voice flickered back to life, softer this time, like she was struggling to stabilize.
"Host biometrics recalibrating… cortical restructuring detected… memory integrity at 68%."
Ethan's mind reeled. His body was wrong. Small. Weak. Fragile. He wasn't in his lab anymore. He wasn't even human anymore.
Then, faint footsteps approached. A deep, commanding voice filled the chamber.
"Selene," the man rumbled, and even his tone carried power — sharp and unyielding. "Is the child stable?"
"Yes, Father," the woman — Selene — replied softly. "He's strong. The bloodline holds."
Through blurry vision, Ethan caught sight of the man standing beside her. Tall, broad-shouldered, his presence seemed to bend the room around him. Silver hair framed a face etched with centuries of experience, and his crimson eyes burned brighter than Selene's. There was no mistaking it: authority radiated from him like heat from the sun.
Lord Kaelen Veyron. Patriarch of the Veyron Clan.
Ethan's newborn body shivered involuntarily. Instinct told him this man commanded entire worlds — and protected them with violence when needed.
"We will hold the naming in three nights," Kaelen said, his voice steady, calculating. "The council will want to confirm the purity of his core before word spreads."
Selene hesitated for the briefest moment, glancing down at Ethan before nodding. "Yes, Father."
Core. That word lodged in Ethan's mind. He didn't understand yet, but he knew it was important.
AURA pulsed faintly within his consciousness again.
"Note: ambient energy density exceeds baseline. Mana concentration significantly above Earth-standard. Recalibrating analysis modules… detecting internal core formation."
Ethan exhaled softly — or maybe it was just a newborn sigh — but his thoughts burned. Mana. Cores. Bloodlines. He had work to do.
Before he could focus further, his vision blurred again, exhaustion overtaking him. But just before sleep claimed him, something strange flickered in the darkness behind his eyelids.
A fragment of memory.
A laugh. Soft. Familiar.
A girl's voice, sweet and curious.
"You make magic sound so simple."
He didn't know who she was. The memory slipped away like water through his fingers, leaving only a hollow ache in his chest.
And then, right before his consciousness faded completely, a soft whisper stirred faintly in the back of his mind:
Nexus protocol initializing… synchronization pending.