A few days passed since the arrival of the twins had shattered the quiet routine of the Draven estate. Caelum and Lyra possessed tiny, demanding lungs, and their presence consumed the household with a frantic, exhausting energy. Servants hurried through the corridors at all hours, carrying warmed milk and fresh linens. Cassian had practically abandoned his border reports, turning into a permanent nanny in the nursery.
For Neo, however, the chaos provided a crucial tactical advantage.
Nora had finally let go of his sleeve.
The silver-haired girl had developed an intense fascination with the newborns. She spent hours sitting on a plush stool beside their crib, her violet eyes tracking their shallow breaths with the unblinking focus of a predator. She didn't try to pick them up—too cautious of her own aura—but she seemed entirely content to simply observe.
Which meant Neo finally had room to breathe.
Closing the heavy iron door of his underground bunker, he engaged the lock. The damp, cool air of the stone room settled over him.
'Time to see if this actually works,' he thought, sitting cross-legged in the center of the floor.
A few days prior, Nora had demonstrated her raw power in the library. She hadn't woven a spell or invoked an element. She had simply exerted her will, condensing neutral mana so densely it shattered crystal. At the time, the display had put Neo on edge. But as the shock faded, his mind had meticulously dissected the phenomenon.
If she could project force to push, he could project force to grasp.
Telekinesis was a theoretical concept rarely mastered before the advanced stages of the Academy. Mages typically relied on wind magic to manipulate objects. True telekinesis—using pure, invisible mana as a physical extension of the body—required a microscopic level of control and a density of energy that most simply did not possess.
But Neo wasn't most people. He had a pristine core, an unnaturally deep reservoir, and the cognitive reasoning of a veteran survivor.
He pulled a heavy wooden training block from his pocket and set it on the stone floor a few paces away.
Taking a measured breath, he skimmed the surface of his core. He grabbed a thick, heavy strand of dense, neutral liquid mana. He opened his eyes.
He visualized the energy extending from his center like a spectral limb, wrapping tightly around the block.
The air above the wood shimmered, distorting the light.
"Up," Neo commanded quietly.
The wooden block groaned against the stone, scraping a harsh inch across the floor. It resisted. Pushing mana outward was simple; energy naturally sought to expand. But keeping it coiled tightly around a physical object, forcing it to defy gravity, felt like trying to grip a greased stone with chopsticks.
Neo gritted his teeth, sweat prickling his hairline. He forced more density into the invisible grip, ignoring the dull ache blooming behind his eyes.
The heavy block wobbled, then slowly hovered two inches off the ground.
A sharp grin broke across his face. He tilted his head slightly to the left. The block drifted left. He moved his gaze right, and the wood followed.
The mental strain was staggering, but the tactical applications were undeniable. If he could master this, he wouldn't need to rely on his pathetic physical agility to dodge. He could swat incoming projectiles from the air, or snap an assassin's neck without lifting a finger.
'Let's see what the limit is,' he thought, a cold curiosity taking over.
He focused his entire will onto the hovering block, imagining the spectral hand clenching into a crushing fist. He funneled a violent surge of dense mana down the invisible tether.
The wood imploded.
It didn't just break; it shattered under the suffocating pressure, sending sharp, jagged splinters raining down onto the stone floor. Neo flinched, throwing his arms up to shield his face from the shrapnel.
Lowering his arms, he stared at the debris. The concussive force generated by a single thought was lethal. If he applied that same pressure to a man's ribcage...
Before he could finish the grim thought, a familiar, crisp chime rang in his skull.
A translucent blue screen materialized in the dim air, the text glowing with urgent brightness.
[ Massive Amount of information Gained... ]
[ Information assimilation complete. ]
[ New Skill Acquired: Basic Telekinesis (Lv. 1) ]
[ Proficiency Threshold Reached... ]
Neo blinked, his gaze locking onto the rapidly scrolling lines of data updating his existence.
[ Breakthrough Initiated....]
[ Rank Up: Initiate (Peak Stage) ]
[ ATTRIBUTES ]
Strength: 9
Agility: 9
Vitality: 10
Intelligence: 65
Mana Capacity: 1450 / 1450
"Peak stage," Neo breathed, stunned.
He had hit the absolute ceiling of the Initiate Rank. One more breakthrough, and he would cross into the realm of an Apprentice—a threshold usually reserved for teenagers entering the Imperial Combat Academy. He was five.
He stared at the interface, a stark realization settling over him. He hadn't broken through just by crushing a piece of wood. The trigger was the "information assimilation."
He thought of Nora. The way she effortlessly condensed her aura. The way she intuitively manipulated the environment. By simply existing in close proximity to the most dangerous, magically gifted anomaly in the Empire, his mind was subconsciously analyzing and adapting to her techniques.
His soul was evolving just to survive her presence.
'She really is a walking cheat code,' Neo thought, a wry smile touching his lips as he dismissed the screen.
His physical stats had marginally improved—a Vitality of ten meant he was slightly less fragile—but the true prize was the intelligence spike and the massive capacity. He was rapidly approaching a point where hiding his strength would become impossible.
Sweeping the splinters into a corner with his boot, Neo ascended the stone stairs and stepped out into the frosty evening. The sun was dipping below the high walls, casting long, bruised shadows across the snow.
He navigated the quiet corridors of the estate, moving with practiced silence, until he reached the nursery.
Pushing the heavy door open a fraction, he slipped inside. The room was bathed in the warm, amber glow of light crystals. In the center, inside a massive carved crib, Caelum and Lyra slept soundly.
Sitting on a velvet stool beside the crib, looking like a silver-haired sentinel carved from ice, was Nora. She didn't move, her chin resting on her pale hands as she watched the infants breathe.
Neo walked over, taking his place beside her. He peered through the wooden bars. Caelum was snoring faintly, while Lyra curled tightly around the edge of her blanket.
"They're loud when they're awake," Nora whispered, her gaze unwavering.
"They are," Neo agreed quietly. "They cry a lot."
Nora fell silent for a long moment. Slowly, she turned her head, her glacial violet eyes meeting his.
"But they don't hurt."
Neo understood perfectly. To her hyper-sensitive perception, the world was a jagged, agonizing mess of conflicting magical signatures. But the newborns hadn't awakened their cores. They possessed no internal mana to leak. To Nora, they were complete, peaceful voids in the spectrum. They were quiet.
"No, they don't," Neo said, gently nudging her shoulder.
Nora looked back at the crib. She reached her small hand through the wooden bars. She didn't squeeze her eyes shut to suppress her aura this time; the brutal feat of control was already becoming muscle memory.
She carefully, deliberately poked Caelum's cheek. The baby shifted, letting out a soft, contented sigh.
A tiny, proud smirk pulled at the corner of Nora's mouth.
Neo watched her, a quiet resolve settling in his chest. The grim destiny written for this world felt irrelevant in the amber light of the nursery. This wasn't a monster destined to burn the capital. She was just a lonely girl who had finally found a pocket of silence.
"Hey," Neo whispered, leaning closer.
Nora tilted her head, her silver hair brushing his arm.
"I figured out how to move things without touching them today," Neo stated, a cold, competitive glint in his eyes.
"I crushed a block of wood into splinters with my mind."
Nora's violet eyes widened slightly. The competitive spark flared instantly, banishing the quiet peace in her gaze. She pulled her hand back from the crib, turning to face him fully.
"I will crush a boulder," she declared with absolute, deadpan seriousness.
"Heh...Heh!"
Neo let out a quiet, breathless laugh. "You probably will. But I'm still ahead of you."
"For now," Nora whispered back. Her tiny hand reached out, locking onto his sleeve with a familiar, iron grip—a silent promise that she was right on his heels.
As the evening shadows stretched across the nursery floor, the two anomalies stood watch over the sleeping twins, quietly sharpening their fangs against each other in the dark.