My Taming System Makes Me Overpowered

The mountain pass was a wasteland of glass and smoking silver dust. Shattered remnants of ancient stone pillars lay scattered across the crater, their fragments catching the dim light like the bones of fallen titans. Some were buried halfway beneath the glass while others floated inches above the ground, suspended by unstable remnants of divine energy.

Thin arcs of silver lightning occasionally crawled across the shattered terrain before vanishing with faint snaps.

The air reeked of scorched ozone and burnt divinity, every breath tasting of ash and raw power. The once-sacred mountain pass had been reduced to a silent graveyard, its ancient pathways erased beneath the aftermath of the battle.

Vince stood at the center of the crater, chest heaving.

Heat radiated from his body, warping the air around him as white mist escaped his mouth with every breath. Tiny cracks spread beneath his boots, glowing faintly before cooling into blackened glass. His fists were clenched so tightly that his knuckles had turned pale.

His dark eyes remained fixed on the sky, burning with an unstable light that threatened to fracture the surrounding ley-lines.

Above him, the distant heavens were still distorted from the earlier clash. Clouds twisted unnaturally around the remnants of divine energy, while faint flashes of light illuminated the horizon.

Grief and fury raged beneath Vince’s gaze.

Vetra and Elena had been taken.

The thought alone threatened to drown reason beneath the weight of his anger.

His aura surged.

The entire crater trembled.

Several pieces of shattered stone rose from the ground before being crushed into dust by the pressure.

"Vince."

Barnaby floated through the haze until she stood directly in front of him.

She showed no fear despite the heat radiating from his body or the oppressive pressure of his transcendent core. Her translucent silk dress caught the silver dust, turning the drifting particles into glowing motes that drifted lazily around her.

Her golden eyes remained fixed on him.

She had seen rage before.

She had watched mortals lose themselves to it, watched powerful beings become slaves to emotions they believed they controlled.

But Vince’s fury was different.

It wasn’t simply anger.

It was the desperate rage of someone who had found something worth protecting and suddenly feared losing it.

"Get out of the way, Barnaby," Vince growled.

His voice was low and dangerous.

The pressure of his aura spread across the ground, causing the glass beneath their feet to crack. Fractures raced outward from him in countless directions, forming a spiderweb across the crater.

Barnaby didn’t move.

"No."

Her usual teasing smile was gone.

She stepped closer and placed a cool, ethereal palm against his chest.

The contrast was immediate.

Her hand was cold against the furnace-like heat of his body, yet Vince didn’t pull away.

"Look at me, Vince. Stop staring at the sky and look at me."

Vince’s gaze slowly lowered.

His amethyst eyes met hers.

The heat from his breath made her form shimmer, but she didn’t retreat.

For several seconds, neither spoke.

The only sound was the distant crackle of unstable energy.

"Take a breath," she said quietly. "They want you volatile. They want you blind. Can you feel their cores?"

Her words cut through the storm in his mind.

Vince clenched his teeth and forced his aura back into his body.

The pressure around him gradually weakened.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, turning his perception inward.

It was difficult.

Every instinct screamed at him to attack the distant Spire, to tear through everything standing between him and the women he loved.

He could almost imagine the route already.

Straight toward the Upper Realm.

Straight toward the Spire.

Straight toward whoever had dared lay a hand on them.

But Barnaby’s hand remained against his chest.

Steady.

Unmoving.

He trusted her.

Vince reached into the hidden currents of his power, searching through the Upper Realm’s suppression field.

The moment his consciousness entered the deeper layers of his authority, the world around him seemed to disappear.

The ruined mountain pass faded.

The sound of cracking glass vanished.

Even his own heartbeat became distant.

He searched through the countless currents of energy surrounding the Spire, filtering through layers of suppression and foreign authority.

Then he felt them.

Deep within the noise, two familiar presences pulsed steadily.

Vetra.

Elena.

The permanent silver filigree and golden lattice he had woven into their cores remained intact.

The connections were faint beneath the Spire’s suppression, but they were unmistakable.

They were imprisoned within the Spire, but their connection to his transcendent authority had not been severed.

Their cores were stable.

Alive.

The realization brought a sharp wave of relief.

For the first time since they had disappeared, Vince allowed himself to breathe normally.

He opened his eyes.

The chaotic fire in his amethyst gaze was gone.

In its place was cold, terrifying clarity.

"They’re alive," he said softly.

"Of course they are."

Barnaby smiled faintly.

"The Sovereigns didn’t take them to destroy them, Vince. It’s a trap."

She removed her hand from his chest.

"They want you to lose control, rush into their domain, and fight on their terms."

Her expression hardened.

"They’re expecting a furious mortal to come running."

Vince stared into her golden eyes.

The steam escaping from his mouth disappeared as he compressed every trace of his volatile aura into a single point of control.

The surrounding ley-lines stabilized.

The floating debris slowly dropped back to the ground.

Even the silver lightning crawling across the crater disappeared.

"So," Vince said, his voice razor-sharp. "What would you have me do?"

Barnaby’s expression changed.

Pride and fierce anticipation filled her eyes.

The look made Vince narrow his gaze.

"What I’m here for, Vince."

Her voice resonated across the ruined mountain pass.

The surrounding air seemed to vibrate with every syllable.

"To make you a full-fledged god."

The words hung in the air.

For a moment, Vince said nothing.

The title carried a weight he had never fully allowed himself to acknowledge.

God.

Not a calamity.

Not a transcendent mortal.

Not someone borrowing a fraction of divine authority.

A true god.

Barnaby moved closer, her translucent fingers lightly tracing his jaw.

"No more holding back to five percent," she said. "No more tiptoeing around their rules or playing by lower-realm constraints."

Her golden eyes flashed.

"If they want to drag this war into the realm of absolute law, then you will meet them there."

She paused.

"Not as a calamity. Not as a mortal seeker..."

Her voice dropped.

"But as the undisputed master of divine authority."

Something shifted inside Vince.

Deep within his soul, the Primordial Lotus bloomed.

For so long, he had deliberately restricted his power, maintaining precise control to blend into the lower realms.

Five percent.

That limit had once been necessary.

It had allowed him to move unseen, to grow without drawing the attention of beings who could crush him before he was ready.

But now?

Those limits dissolved.

The Lotus unfolded completely.

A wave of radiant energy surged through every channel of his being.

The power did not explode outward.

It expanded inward first, filling every corner of his soul with an overwhelming sense of clarity.

The petals of the Primordial Lotus opened one after another, bathing his inner world in radiant light.

His core responded.

Authority answered authority.

The restrictions he had placed upon himself vanished.

The change reached beyond raw power.

His perception expanded.

The world suddenly seemed different.

The ley-lines beneath the mountain were no longer mysterious currents of energy. He could see their structure, their intersections, their points of weakness.

The lingering divine power in the air revealed itself as easily as writing on a page.

Even the distant Spire no longer felt like an unreachable fortress.

It was simply another structure governed by laws.

And laws could be mastered.

Vince slowly exhaled.

He no longer needed to find a way through their defenses.

He didn’t need to capture their structures.

He didn’t need to negotiate with their blockades.

He would master the authority itself.

The realization settled into him with absolute certainty.

He would not approach the Sovereigns as a challenger begging entry into their domain.

Their domain would acknowledge him.

The war had changed.

This was no longer simply about rescuing what had been taken.

It was about rewriting the rules that had allowed it to happen.

Barnaby watched him silently.

She could feel the difference.

The man standing before her was still Vince.

Yet something fundamental had changed.

The wild pressure that had surrounded him moments earlier was gone.

In its place was something far more frightening.

Control.

Absolute control.

Vince rolled his shoulders.

The movement was casual, almost relaxed.

But the air around him bent.

A faint pulse of divine authority spread through the crater, causing the shattered glass beneath his feet to hum.

"Let them wait."

A slow, cold smirk spread across his face.

"I’ll show them what happens when the bait bites back."

The words echoed through the ruined mountain pass.

For several seconds, silence followed.

Then Vince turned his gaze toward the distant horizon.

The Spire was waiting.

So were the Sovereigns.

They believed they had captured two women to lure a furious mortal into their territory.

They believed his emotions would become his weakness.

They believed they had already determined how the next move would unfold.

They were wrong.

Far above, within the cold heights of the Spire, the Sovereigns waited for the furious mortal they believed they had trapped.

They had mistaken the bait for the threat.

The real threat was the god who had finally decided to stop holding back.