Chapter 26 – The Inferior Base
The pale morning light dragged itself through the open window, offering no warmth to the freezing apartment.
Luke stood over the bathroom sink, staring at his reflection. The icy water dripping from his chin felt distant. Today, he was walking into Silver Moon Corporation. He was taking command of a strike team filled with killers, spies, and unstable awakeners. He had to play the part of the ambitious, slightly greedy corporate pawn perfectly.
But as he wiped his face with a towel, his eyes dropped to his right hand.
The 3rd Ring of the Deep Sea sat quietly on his index finger. To anyone else, it looked like a beautiful, expensive piece of glass swirling with blue light. But Luke could feel it. A faint, crushing gravity pulsing against his skin.
He leaned his weight against the sink. "Master," he called out in his mind, testing the mental link. "You said you were going to guide me. Before I walk into the lion’s den today, I need to know your plan. How exactly are we doing this?"
The silence in his head didn't last long. When Petra Kross’s voice echoed in his mind, it didn't sound like a thought. It felt like a heavy, ancient bell ringing inside his skull.
"I spent the night analyzing the ruins of your soul," Petra said. Her tone was smooth, but laced with the sharp, merciless critique of a master examining a botched piece of art. "And I must tell you, little one... the Will of your World is either terribly desperate, or incredibly foolish."
Luke frowned, his grip tightening on the edge of the sink. "What do you mean? It gave me Time and Space. It integrated them into my second awakening."
"It forced them," Petra corrected sharply. "Tell me, when you freeze time or fold space, what is pulling the energy? What is the anchor?"
Luke thought back to the alley. To the silver and violet threads weaving through his frost. "Ice. My core element is Ice. The Time and Space fragments act as an extension of it."
"Exactly. And that is a fatal flaw." Petra’s voice carried a heavy, suffocating certainty. "Ice is a standard elemental attribute. A mortal power. Time and Space are supreme, origin laws of the universe. What you have right now is a peasant trying to command emperors. You are trying to force a raging ocean through a fragile glass cup."
Luke’s breath caught. The realization hit him like a physical blow.
That explained the terrifying drain. It explained why Freeze burned a staggering ten Soul Power every single second. It wasn't just because manipulating time was expensive—it was because his mortal Ice core was literally buckling under the pressure of channeling a cosmic law it had no business holding.
"If you continue to grow with Ice as your foundation, you will permanently cripple your potential," Petra warned, her voice dropping lower. "The moment you try to access the remaining ninety percent of those sealed fragments, your Ice core will shatter. Your soul will be torn to dust."
A cold sweat broke out on the back of Luke’s neck. He had thought his second awakening was a perfect cheat code. Instead, he had been walking around with a lit bomb in his chest.
"So, how do we fix it?" Luke asked. He didn't panic. Panic was useless. He just needed the solution.
"We tear down the house and rebuild the foundation," Petra said simply. "We must completely invert your power base. Time and Space must be elevated to act as the true core of your soul. Ice will be relegated to a secondary tool—a mere casing for the real weapon."
"Can you do that?"
A dark, amused hum vibrated in his mind. "I am Petra Kross. Do not ask me foolish questions. However, reconstructing a soul base requires preparation. I will need specific alchemical materials from this modern world to anchor your mind so you do not go mad during the procedure. Until I have them, you are strictly forbidden from overusing your Time and Space abilities in combat. Rely on your Ice. Rely on your gun. Hide your true edge."
Luke nodded slowly. It made sense. He was temporarily nerfed, forcing him to play the exact role Silver Moon expected of him—a standard Ice user.
"Understood. But what do I do in the meantime?" Luke asked. "I can't just sit around and wait for you to gather materials."
"You won't be," Petra said, her tone shifting from a scholar into a strict, unforgiving instructor. "Right now, your control is barbaric. You swing the law of Time around like a thug swinging a brick. You need to learn how to perceive higher-level energy. Close your eyes."
Luke exhaled and let his eyelids shut.
"Project your consciousness into the ring," she commanded. "Do not look for me. Look at the ring's natural essence. Look into the Deep Sea."
Luke pushed his sensory awareness down his arm, past his wrist, and into the glass-like band on his finger.
Instantly, his breathing stopped.
He wasn't standing in his bathroom anymore. His consciousness had plunged into an endless, suffocating abyss. It wasn't water. It was pure, dense, terrifying pressure, mimicking the absolute dark of the ocean floor.
And moving through this pitch-black space were unseen waves.
They weren't fast. They rolled with a slow, planetary heaviness. They were massive, invisible tides of raw, ancient power, shifting with unstoppable momentum. Just sensing them made Luke feel no larger than a grain of sand.
"Your temporary training begins now," Petra’s voice echoed from everywhere at once, vibrating through the dark water. "Freeze the wave."
Luke mentally gritted his teeth. In the physical world, he had stopped a high-speed assassin mid-strike. Stopping a slow-moving wave of energy inside a ring? He could do that.
He locked his awareness onto the closest invisible tide rolling toward him.
He gathered his Soul Power, picturing the silver thread of his fragment. "Freeze."
The silver ripple of Time shot outward from his mind, colliding directly with the massive wave.
Luke expected the tide to instantly lock in place.
Instead, the wave didn't even slow down.
CRACK.
"Argh!" Luke cried out, his physical body lurching backward. He slammed hard into the bathroom tiles, his hands flying to his head. A sharp, drilling pain spiked behind his eyes, so intense his vision blurred. He tasted copper. A thin line of blood ran from his left nostril.
Inside the ring, his Freeze hadn't worked. The wave had simply rolled right through his power, crushing it instantly like a boulder rolling over a pane of thin glass.
Luke gasped for air, clutching the sink to pull himself up. He checked his soul instinctively. That single, failed attempt had instantly ripped away 15 points of Soul Power.
"What... what was that?" Luke managed to ask, wiping the blood from his upper lip.
"That," Petra said, her voice entirely devoid of sympathy, "is the difference between mortal effort and an ancient force. The assassin you froze yesterday was just a human flesh-and-blood target. The waves inside this ring are woven from higher-level, ancient laws."
Luke stared down at the ring, his chest heaving. The sheer scale of what he was dealing with finally clicked.
"Your Freeze failed because your intent is hollow," Petra critiqued. "You cannot stop a higher-level force simply by shouting a command at it and hoping your energy does the work. You have to understand the flow of the wave. You have to match its density. You have to weave the law of Time directly into its gaps. Until you can successfully freeze a single wave inside this ring for one full second, your training will not progress."
Luke wiped the last smear of blood from his face. It was an incredibly punishing exercise. It was like standing on a beach and trying to command the actual ocean to stop moving by holding up a hand.
But as he looked in the mirror, there was no frustration in his eyes.
A fierce, sharp smile pulled at the corner of his mouth.
This was real. He wasn't stumbling blindly through a novel's plot anymore, hoping his meager knowledge would keep him alive. He had a clear, defined path to absolute mastery, guided by someone who truly understood the peak of existence.
"I understand," Luke said, his voice steadying, the pain already fading into pure adrenaline. "I'll practice it every second I'm not in the field."
"Good," Petra replied, a faint trace of approval warming her ancient voice. "Now, clean yourself up. I believe you have a corporation to infiltrate and a team to bring to heel."
Luke turned on the faucet, washed the blood from his face, and dried off. He adjusted the collar of his shirt, slipping his cold, Bureau-trained composure back over his features like a second skin.
He picked up his corporate-issued handgun, checked the magazine, and walked out the door. The real game had officially begun.