Sasaki rose from his seat and gave himself one final look in the mirror, studying the reflection staring back at him with a critical, searching eye.
For most of his life, he had existed as a Living Corpse, a body that lived without truly living, incapable of feeling pain, fear, joy, any of it. Only in recent years had he clawed his way back into something closer to ordinary, a state he called his Human form, where his body responded like anyone else's, where feeling was no longer something he had to imagine secondhand. He could shift freely between the two now, at will, with no visible difference marking one from the other except the color bleeding through his eyes.
But decades spent numb to the world had left him poorly equipped to handle it once feeling actually returned. Social pressure. Political maneuvering. The simple, exhausting weight of being watched and judged by hundreds of people at once, all of it landed differently on him now than it once had, back when nothing could touch him at all.
He'd leaned on the Living Corpse form for most of his life to get through moments exactly like this one. Today, he wanted to stand through it as himself instead.
Talented. Supernova-ranked. Still young enough to have flaws like anyone else, he reminded himself, exhaling slowly. Flaws that, fortunately, only the handful of people closest to him ever actually saw.
He crossed the room and opened the dressing room door.
Through his Abyssal Eyes, the ground floor hall unfolded clearly before him, walls and distance meaning nothing to his sight, guests scattered in glittering clusters across the marble floor below, more of them arriving by the second.
His heart picked up its pace, unbidden.
He hesitated there in the doorway, one hand still resting against the frame, when a small lump of blue flame flared to life against his left shoulder, curling and reshaping itself in an instant into a tiny phoenix, feathers rendered in shifting blue fire, eyes glowing a warm gold-blue.
"My lord," Nix chirped, tilting its small head, "there's no need to be so nervous. They're only people, and rather puny ones at that. Walk down those stairs, and they won't even be able to move properly, let alone judge you for anything."
Sasaki let out a slow breath, gaze still fixed on the crowd below.
"I know, Nix," he murmured. "I know all that. I'm still scared anyway."
This blue-flamed phoenix was Sasaki's spirit animal.
Once an Aura user advanced to Hypernova rank, their Aura and both inner realms underwent a qualitative shift. That shift gave birth to a spirit animal.
Any creature but a human could take that shape. Which one depended entirely on the person's habits, mindset, personality, the quiet accumulation of who they actually were.
A spirit animal carried real power on its own. It assisted with cultivation, Aura storage, control, capacity, even combat directly. It was one of the reasons the gap between Hypernova and Lysi Nova dwarfed every gap before it.
Normally, a spirit animal had no consciousness of its own. It simply obeyed, an extension of its owner's will and nothing more.
Nix wasn't normal.
Nix had a name. That alone would have been remarkable enough. But Nix also had memories, a personality, its own quirks, the ability to think independently and still choose, every time, to act on Sasaki's word.
Loyal without pride. Effective without hesitation. Strong in its own right.
It was, quietly, one of the real reasons Sasaki had climbed so far, so fast.
He'd spent years now trying to stop leaning on his Living Corpse form. Even for a genius like him, it hadn't been easy.
Everyone carries something they can't fully solve, he thought, watching the crowd below without moving from the doorway. Even a lifetime isn't enough to run out of problems.
No one was perfect. Not even him, whatever the rest of Lumenia liked to believe.
His talent, his influence, his sheer visibility simply made his flaws easy to overlook. A shooting star. A rising sun. People stared at the brightness and never thought to look for the cracks underneath it.
Something sharp and disappointed flickered across his face.
He looked down at the hall again. At the sheer number of people packed into it, more arriving every second, voices rising in a low, constant hum even from this distance.
I can't.
The thought landed plain and final, no argument left in it.
He let out a slow breath.
"It's getting late," he murmured. "I don't have another option."
His eyes bled back to black.
...
In the grand hall on the ground floor of the mansion, the vast chamber was alive with the elegant hum of conversation and the crisp clinking of crystal glasses. Long tables covered in pristine white silk groaned under the weight of exquisite delicacies from across the Auralis Solar System, shimmering starfruit tarts, roasted nebula beast fillets glazed in golden honey, floating orbs of luminous wine, and delicate pastries shaped like blooming moon orchids.
The floor was paved with flawless white and golden tiles arranged in intricate geometric patterns that caught the light like polished marble. Towering pillars of white marble veined with threads of gold rose toward a ceiling adorned with dozens of magnificent crystal chandeliers, each one casting warm golden and rose-gold light that danced across the hall.
Several orchestras played softly from elevated platforms, and the music flowed through the air like a gentle current, adding a layer of refined elegance to the lively atmosphere. Servants dressed in sharp black suits moved with practiced grace, weaving through the crowd with silver trays laden with food and sparkling drinks, ensuring no guest was left unattended.
It was a truly lively and splendid scene, and the hallway leading into the hall was no less impressive. Guests poured in through the towering entrance in a steady, unbroken stream, their voices rising and falling in dozens of languages at once, the sound gathering into one great wave that rolled ahead of them into the chamber. The hallway itself stretched wide enough to hold a small army, its walls lined with tall arched windows that let in the violet light of Lumenia's twin moons, and every few steps another cluster of guests paused to admire the view or greet an old acquaintance before pressing forward.
Guests had arrived from countless planets, each bringing their own unique cultures, histories, and customs. Yet tonight, almost all of them wore formal suits of various colors and styles, with high-quality bodysuits underneath, a universal standard of elegance for any occasion in Lumenia. Humans in tailored black, elegant avian hybrids with shimmering feathers tucked neatly beneath silk collars, towering crystalline beings whose bodies chimed softly with every step, and graceful scaled nobles with jeweled cuffs all moved together under the golden glow of the chandeliers, and none of it looked out of place.
Near one of the tables, a crystalline being turned to a companion and spoke in a voice that rang like struck glass. "The wine here resonates at a frequency I have not tasted in three centuries. Someone in this house has excellent taste." His companion, a scaled noble with a low, rasping voice, only laughed and said the wine was wasted on someone who could not even get drunk.
Further along, a pair of avian hybrids stood near a chandelier's reflection, feathers catching the rose gold light. One of them tilted her head toward the ceiling and remarked that a nest built this high would never survive the drafts, which made her companion snort into his glass and nearly choke.
Near the hallway's entrance, a tall creature with four eyes and a voice like layered chords addressed a group of humans who had stopped to stare. "Do not be alarmed by my appearance. Where I come from, staring is considered a compliment, so please, continue." The humans laughed, and one of them raised a glass in his direction, and the creature seemed pleased by the gesture.
"This place is breathtaking! Don't you think so, Salvia?" A bubbly girl with pink hair and pink eyes, freckles scattered across her face, called back to her friend as she lifted the hem of her huge green dress and spun once on her heel to take it all in.
"Wait for me, you cannot just run off like that in a crowd this size!" Behind her, a beautiful young woman with blonde hair and dark green eyes hurried to catch up. Her dress fit her perfectly and let her move with ease, but in a hall this packed, even ease was not enough, and she had to duck around a floating tray and sidestep a crystalline elbow just to keep her friend in sight.
"You worry too much, Salvia, just enjoy it! Look, they even have moon orchid pastries!" The pink-haired girl pointed excitedly toward one of the tables, already tugging her friend's sleeve toward it.
The hall's space had already been expanded by a Hypernova of the Boundless Pathway, but it still seemed too small for the sheer number of guests pressing in from every direction. Just as Salvia reached out to grab her friend's arm and steer her away from the crowd, she turned too quickly and struck someone's shoulder.
"Ouch!" She blurted out and looked up at once to apologize, but the other person had already turned to face her first.
"Are you okay, Miss? I am sorry; I should have seen you coming." The man had white hair and heterochromia, his left eye black and his right eye white, and a handsome face framed by a white suit that carried itself with quiet authority.
This was none other than Cief, the future leader of the Truth Seekers. He was already infamous and reputed to stand on equal footing with Sasaki Alberich, a Supernova at the same young age, with only a single year separating them. He had also been chosen as the best man at Sasaki Alberich's wedding, a fact that made his presence at any gathering impossible to ignore.
Everyone in the hall seemed to know his face on sight, yet when Salvia looked at him, she could only blink in confusion, something about him nagging at the edge of her memory.
"Hmm, why do I find this man so familiar, but I cannot seem to put my finger on it?" Her brows furrowed as she asked the question half to herself.
Before she could think any further, her friend came rushing up from behind, grabbed her by the arm, and began apologizing in a flustered rush of words.
"I am so sorry for my clumsy friend; please forgive us. She gets like this in big crowds!" The pink-haired girl bowed her head quickly, and Salvia, still confused by how flustered her friend had suddenly become, followed her gaze and saw the woman standing beside Cief, the one he had been speaking with all along.
Her eyes widened in terror as her gaze landed on the woman standing beside Cief, and every trace of playfulness drained from her face in an instant. The woman had short purple hair and eyes to match, dressed in a sharp suit that somehow made her look even more dangerous than elegant, a wine glass resting loosely in her hand as she stared back at Salvia and her friend with an expression that gave nothing away.
"A-Alia Hoshina, a Supernova!" The pink-haired girl's voice cracked on the name, and her whole body began to tremble as she dropped into a bow so sudden and so deep that she nearly dragged Salvia down with her.
Salvia barely had time to process the name before her friend seized her wrist and hauled her backward, and the two of them shoved their way through the packed crowd without a single glance behind them, apologies tumbling out of their mouths to anyone they bumped along the way, their earlier excitement about the party completely forgotten in the scramble to put as much distance between themselves and Alia Hoshina as possible.
Cief watched them go and let one hand drift to the front of his suit, a small, private thought crossing his mind as his fingers brushed the fabric.
"This rank 0 relic of the Concealment Pathway was truly useful."
...
"Malefic! Don't go there; come and meet Mrs. Celestia right here." A burly man with red hair and crimson eyes bellowed at his teenage son, who had been trying to slip past him and vanish into the crowd unnoticed.
Unfortunately, his father's eyes were still too sharp for his age to escape.
"Damn it," Malefic, who shared his father's red hair and crimson eyes, cursed under his breath.
This was not the first girl his father had paraded in front of him, and he had no genuine interest in any of them, including this Celestia standing before him now. It was not that he leaned toward men instead, but rather that he refused to grow close to someone simply because his family needed the connection.
Celestia had long white hair and wide, innocent silver eyes, and in her white dress threaded with silver, she looked every bit as enchanting as the introduction had promised. Still, beauties like her were not exactly rare in a hall this size, and Malefic knew it.
Malefic's family had long been a branch family of the main line, the Ardyn Family. Every head of their branch had hoped to reconnect with the main house, but certain crimes committed by their ancestors had made even reclaiming the Ardyn surname impossible. Now his father carried that same hope forward and wanted Malefic to attach himself to a girl with powerful parents, hoping it might raise their standing by even a fraction.
"I wonder when this useless struggle will end," Malefic thought, his view of his family's situation far more pessimistic than anyone else in it.
His father gave him one last warning look before turning away to greet another guest, leaving Malefic standing there with Celestia and no clear way to escape. An uncomfortable silence settled between them, neither willing to be the first to speak.
"So," Celestia finally said, staring at a point somewhere over his shoulder rather than at his face, "your father seems very eager for us to talk."
"Yours too, I take it," Malefic replied, matching her tone exactly, his eyes fixed on the same empty spot behind her.
"My mother has mentioned your family three times this week alone." Celestia's fingers tightened slightly around the stem of her glass, though she had not taken a single sip from it. "I did not think she was being serious until she picked out this dress herself."
"My father picked my suit too, if that helps." Malefic glanced down at himself as if seeing the suit for the first time, then back up, still avoiding her eyes. "I would not have chosen white lining."
"It suits you," Celestia said quickly, then seemed to catch herself, her cheeks coloring faintly. "I only mean, it is not a bad color choice, is what I meant to say."
"Right." Malefic cleared his throat and looked off toward the crowd, searching for anything that might excuse him from the conversation without being outright rude. "This is a very large party."
"Extremely large," Celestia agreed at once, latching onto the safer topic with visible relief. "I have never seen this many Walkers gathered under one roof before."
"Neither have I." A pause stretched between them again, longer this time, and Malefic shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "The food looks good, at least."
"I have not tried any of it yet." Celestia glanced toward the tables, then back at him, as if silently asking whether that might be a way out of the silence.
"Do you want to get some?" Malefic asked, the words coming out stiffer than he intended, more obligation than invitation.
"If you would like to," Celestia answered just as stiffly, and neither of them moved for a moment, both clearly aware that their parents were watching from somewhere in the crowd and would read far too much into whatever they did next.
...
"You truly have a great disposition at today's event, Madam Lara." A white man with blonde hair and a medium beard spoke with a glass of yellow wine in his hand to a woman with a Swedish accent standing across from him.
This woman was a beautiful lady with long blonde hair and shining blue eyes, wearing a beautiful blue dress that shimmered like stars catching light. She carried herself with an ease that made the crowded hall feel briefly quieter around her.
Hearing his words, she laughed lightly and said, "Oh, come on, Mr. White. How can I compare to your elegant and eloquent character? Haha."
"You give me too much credit," he replied, inclining his glass slightly toward her in a small toast. "I have heard a great deal about the healers of the Vitalis family, but hearing about a reputation and standing before it are two very different things."
"Now you are simply flattering me." She tilted her head, her long pointy ears catching the chandelier light, a mark of her half-elf blood. "Though I will admit, few people outside our own halls know much about the Life Pathway at all. Most assume healing is simple, as if it were only a matter of will."
"I assume nothing of the sort," he said, his tone shifting into something more careful, more deliberate, the kind of care a man uses when he wants a conversation to last. "I have seen what your family's Hypernovas can undo, and what they cannot. That alone tells me the Life Pathway asks for a price most other pathways do not."
She studied him for a moment, her smile settling into something a little more genuine, a little less rehearsed. "You are better read than most men who corner me at these gatherings, Mr. White."
She had been sent here by the Vitalis family, who presided mainly over the Life Pathway, to build connections with the Symmetra family on their behalf, carrying her family's name and reputation as a Hypernova and a healer spoken of with real respect. Naturally, the man across from her was from the Symmetra family and a Hypernova in his own right, and he had approached her tonight with intentions that went well beyond polite conversation.
Hypernovas were rare enough anywhere else in the Auralis region that most people would go a lifetime without meeting one. In this hall, they moved through the crowd like nothing more than well-dressed guests among well-dressed guests.
In another corner of the hall, three dragonmen with red scales and orange eyes, all dressed in matching red suits, stood together in easy conversation. Only their leader was a Hypernova, while the other two were Lysian Novae, though both were regarded as exceptional even among that rank.
"Sasaki Alberich has truly set up a grand marriage. I can see his intentions clearly." Their leader spoke slowly, his gaze drifting across the hall as though reading something written into the crowd itself, wisdom settling behind his eyes the way it does in men who have watched empires rise from nothing more than a single well-placed gathering.
"What do you mean, Lord?" One of the two dragonmen asked, curiosity plain on his face, a small burst of fire escaping his mouth with the words before fading a moment later.
"I have some time before I must go and build new relationships with these influential people, so let me give you both some context behind this wedding, since I doubt either of you sees it for what it truly is."
The two dragonmen straightened, their curiosity sharpening into full attention. They had always respected their leader deeply, and when he spoke like this, weighing his words before releasing them, they knew it was worth listening closely.
"This marriage may look, to an untrained eye, like a grand waste of wealth spent celebrating one talented young man, but it is nothing of the sort. It is Sasaki Alberich's way of finally stepping into the political sphere of the Auralis Solar System, something his sword alone could never grant him."
"Doesn't he already have relationships with every family? I remember him visiting every family head and fighting them, over and over, until he won each time." The second dragonman spoke.
Their leader shook his head slowly, the way a teacher does when a student has grasped the surface of a lesson but missed its heart. "That is true, and yet those were never relationships in any meaningful sense. He came to fight, and he left the moment the fight ended, indifferent to the outcome as anything more than a number on his record. Every family tried to draw him closer through invitations, and every single time, he refused. Either he did not value what they offered, or he understood something the rest of us are only now beginning to see: that his reputation needed no help from politeness."
"Look around this hall. Watch how easily these people speak to one another, all of them from different planets, all of them carrying their own ambitions and quiet calculations. How many years has it been since a gathering drew people together like this? Even the ascension ceremony of the 107th Meditation Master did not bring this many. Sasaki Alberich built this evening himself, and he built it for one purpose: to let these people meet a side of him they have never been shown before, the side capable of planning and scheming as carefully as he fights."
"Once that side of him is understood, the relationships he chooses to build afterward will come far easier than any of them expect. Battle strength matters greatly, and a man without it has nothing to stand on, but strength alone has never been enough to hold together something as large as what he intends to build. Sasaki Alberich has long been known for his talent and his strength as an Aura user, but after tonight, people will begin to speak of his mind in the same breath as his blade."
"I would also guess, and I say this only as a guess, that he intends to ascend to the rank of True Supernova and take the seat of Meditation Master one day. If that is truly his path, then a marriage built on relationships this wide and this deep will serve him far better later than any single victory in battle ever could."
"Consider why the three of us were invited at all. It is because we stand as lords of the Dragon Solar System, and by drawing us here tonight, Sasaki Alberich opens the door to a relationship that could secure travel routes for Red Scalium into the Blackbell family for generations to come."
"Just wait. The family heads have not yet arrived. Once they do, you will understand his brilliance far better than any words of mine could explain it."
The two dragonmen fell silent, turning their leader's words over carefully in their minds, weighing each layer of meaning he had laid before them. They were on the verge of asking him more.
But right at that moment, every single person in the hall felt a bone chilling pressure wash over them all at once, heavier than anything most of them had ever felt in their lives, pressing down on their chests until it became difficult to even draw a full breath. Their sense of danger flared without warning, and screams broke out across the crowd.
Many felt the urge to run, while others simply froze where they stood, their legs refusing to obey them. The pressure did not vanish quickly either. It lingered long after the first wave passed, sinking into the air itself, so that even the bravest among them kept glancing toward the stairs without meaning to.
The music slowly stopped, and after a long pause, it returned low and eerie, carrying the weight of something ancient and inevitable. It soon shifted into the sound of a hero's arrival, though there was nothing celebratory in it. The song carried a feeling that left no room for refusal, as though the very air demanded everyone stop and listen.
A figure began descending the stairs, his face utterly expressionless, his black eyes as deep and empty as the abyss itself, carrying no warmth and no cruelty either, only a stillness that unsettled everyone who met his gaze.
For those first few minutes, only the sound of his footsteps echoed through the hall, each one landing with a weight that seemed far too heavy for a single man. No one dared to move, no one dared to whisper, until he had stepped down completely and the pressure around him settled into something almost bearable.
Only then did the whispers begin, low and quick, passed from guest to guest without anyone daring to raise their voice.
"That is him. That is really him."
"I have heard stories, but I never expected the pressure alone to feel like this."
"Do not look him in the eyes for too long. I have heard men have fainted from less."
Sasaki looked around the hall and let his gaze pass over every guest in turn, unhurried, as though he had all the time in existence and none of them were worth rushing for. He placed his right hand flat against his chest and kept his left hand clenched behind his back, then bowed deeply, his voice cold and utterly unfeeling when he finally spoke.
"I thank everyone for coming to this auspicious wedding of mine. I welcome you all to my wedding, and I hope you have found, and will continue to find, something worth enjoying in each other's company tonight."
"I am certain most of you already know who I am, but I will introduce myself regardless. My name is Sasaki Blackbell Alberich, son of Sapphire Alberich, adopted son of Albert Blackbell and Alberta Blackbell, adopted grandson and successor of Cristopher Blackbell, and inheritor of the Fourth Meditation Master, Sashiro Alberich."
Hearing these words, the guests swallowed hard, their hearts pounding harder despite already knowing exactly who stood before them.
This was Sasaki Alberich in the flesh, and no amount of preparation made the reality of his presence any easier to stand under.
Sasaki walked forward, and the crowd parted for him without needing to be asked twice; no one was willing to be even a second slow in clearing his path. He soon reached the main door and stood there straight as a spear, his eyes fixed on the entrance, waiting in silence for the family heads to arrive so that he could welcome them himself.