The golden palace of the Vance family, perched atop the highest peak of the Neo-Andes, was protected by a Rank 1: World Breaker shield that could withstand a direct nuclear strike. Inside, Kaelen Vance roared, his solar-mana manifesting as a miniature sun behind his back.
"I am the Scion of the Light! No ghost can take what is mine by birthright!"
Suddenly, the golden sky turned a bruised, sickly violet. A rift in space-time—the signature of a Rank 2 Weaver but with the raw power of a Rank 4—tore open above the palace. Lia descended. She didn't use a weapon. She simply walked through the shield as if it were a soap bubble.
"Impossible!" Kaelen shrieked, firing a beam of pure solar-heat.
Lia didn't dodge. The beam hit her chest and... vanished. She wasn't absorbing it; she was Dimensionally Phasing it into the Void. In a single, fluid motion, she appeared in front of Kaelen. Her hand, cold and porcelain-white, plunged through his golden armor and into his chest.
Miles below, in the planetary core, Yuan sat cross-legged. He had closed his eyes, his consciousness linked to Lia's senses. He felt the warmth of Kaelen's "Solar Heart" through her fingers.
"Now," Yuan commanded.
Lia ripped the glowing, golden organ from Kaelen's chest. The "Solar Tyrant" didn't even have time to scream before his body turned into grey ash—the fate of those whose mana-source is stolen.
Lia held the heart, which pulsated with the energy of a thousand stars. She didn't eat it. She squeezed it, turning the solid matter into a stream of liquid gold.
Through the Causality Link, the liquid gold traveled across dimensions, manifesting in the core and flowing into Yuan's small mouth.
[SYSTEM ALERT: SOLAR-CORE DETECTED]
[EVOLVING: WORLD BREAKER -> SPACE-TIME WEAVER]
Yuan's small body floated off the ground. His silver-alloy bones began to vibrate at frequencies that bypassed physical matter. His hair, once black, began to shimmer with starlight. He wasn't just getting stronger; he was becoming "Unbound."
"The cage of the 1st Rank is broken," Yuan whispered, his voice now echoing through time itself. "I can see the threads, Ethan. I can see where your digital soul is hiding."