Chapter 54: The New Reality, Tears of the Phoenix

They walked in silence. Serah tried to make sense of what she had seen. The light, the glowing eyes, and the way his body had dissolved defied all science and logic. She squeezed his hand and did not let go.

’Home. Martha. Leo. I need to check on them.’

’The World Will. Active Monitoring. The System said one more Epic event triggers Fate Enforcers. I need to be careful.’

’110 million EXP in the Bank. I can push my stats higher. I can prepare.’

’But first. Home.’

The instability in the alley grew worse. Stone cracked and the air shimmered as reality thinned beneath Vaeloria.

[Dimensional Stability: CRITICAL.]

[Rift Formation Probability: ELEVATED.]

[Estimated time to spontaneous Rift opening: 12 hours.]

The Undercity apartment door opened with a familiar squeak.

Alvian stepped inside. His new, bigger body made the small apartment feel tiny. The ceiling felt lower and the walls felt closer. Nothing in the room felt like his anymore.

Martha was awake.

She sat up in bed against old pillows. Her breathing was finally clear. The VIT potion she took weeks ago had worked. The glass-like gray patches on her fingers were still there, but they had stopped spreading. The sickness was paused for now.

"Alvian?" Her voice was quiet, no longer filled with the wet cough he used to hear. "My son. You look different."

"I grew. Mom," he said with a little chuckle. Hearing his mom sound without the wet cough made him almost cry.

Leo slept in the corner. The newest drawing had a stick figure under a bright beam of light, while smaller figures ran away.

Alvian looked at the drawing for a long time.

He saw the Aura Explosion. Or felt it. Or dreamed it. Kids know things they cannot explain.

He knelt beside Martha. He checked her health carefully. He checked her pulse, breathing, and skin. The crystal growth had stopped, but it remained. The potion was only a temporary fix, not a cure.

She needed the Tears of the Phoenix, an S-Rank elixir, to fix her body cells. It was the only item that could cure crystal damage. Only three bottles existed, locked inside the Royal Treasury behind massive magical shields.

[DING!]

[EXP allocation available.]

[Current EXP Bank: 110,000,000.]

[Recommendation: Invest in INT for strategic processing and Essence for Domain sustainability.]

He sat on the floor and opened his status screen.

╔══════════════════════════════╗

║ LEVEL: 50

║ STR: 110 | AGI: 102

║ VIT: 280 | INT: 65

║ Essence: 100

║ EXP Bank: 110,000,000

╚══════════════════════════════╝

He spent 10,000,000 EXP on INT.

[INT: 65 → 85.]

His mind cleared like cold water. His thoughts sped up, and he noticed everything around him. He could calculate battle chances instantly. Breaking into the Royal Treasury changed from an impossible dream into a solvable puzzle.

Then he spent 5,000,000 EXP on Essence.

[Essence: 100 → 130.]

[Domain sustainability at Essence 130: ~22 seconds full radius, ~400 seconds minimum radius.]

[EXP Bank: 110,000,000 → 95,000,000.]

He was turning into a major threat. At full size, his Domain could destroy a city block. At its smallest size, held through physical contact, it could stay active for over six minutes.

He was becoming a major threat. At full size, his Domain could destroy a city block. Held through direct touch, it could last over six minutes.

Martha watched him with tired eyes. "You’re doing that thing again. Staring at nothing."

"Just thinking," he said.

"With you, that’s the same thing."

He smiled.

Killing Duke Magnus gave him more than a victory. Before leaving, he took the Duke’s spatial ring. He pulled it out now and opened its storage.

[DING!]

[Inventory scan complete.]

[Contents: 2,000,000 credits (liquid). 3 B-Rank weapons. 2 A-Rank armor pieces. 1 personal cloaking field. 1 communication jammer. 1 sealed envelope.]

Two million credits. It was enough money to fund a small war. He saved the gear for Serah and Tobias, then stored the cloaking field and jammer in his own inventory.

The sealed envelope was different.

Inside were letters between Duke Magnus and Guild Magistrate Hollis Thorne. Thorne had signed the Bloodhound hit contract. The letters went back three years, proving Thorne sold his authority to order illegal hits for cash.

The Guild magistrate system was corrupt. Legal paths were useless, so Alvian kept the letters next to the original contract. Everything was leverage.

A groan came from the doorway. Tobias had been carried here by Serah, who had gone to search for medical supplies. Tobias lay on a floor mattress with clean cloth around his arm stump. His eyes opened slowly.

"Boy?"

Alvian moved closer. "I’m here."

Tobias looked up. His cloudy eyes slowly focused, taking in Alvian’s bigger body, the faint shine in his eyes, and the slight shimmer in the air around him.

"You’ve turned into something else, boy," his voice was dry and weak. "Don’t let the power consume you."

Alvian nodded, understanding the warning. Power without a reason was useless destruction. His reasons were Martha, Leo, and staying alive.

Tobias fell back asleep.

Alvian walked to the window. Level thirteen of the Undercity spread out below, a maze of pipes and recycled air. Above it, through gaps in the metal frame, the Upper Ward rose toward the sky.

Ironclad Academy stood on the horizon. Its towers caught the afternoon light, but something was wrong. The sky above it had a soft, rainbow glow. The air was warping, cracking like glass, just like the alley after his God Roll.

[Dimensional Stability: WORSENING.]

[The Aura Explosion has damaged the dimensional bedrock beneath Vaeloria.]

[Stress points are spreading from the original impact site.]

[Estimated time to critical failure: 12 hours.]

Alvian stared at the glowing air. Space itself was cracking and getting worse. The energy he released had damaged reality, and the wound was widening.

The sky above the Academy glowed again. A thin rainbow line cut through the clouds, then vanished.

Something was tearing open.

The glowing sky did not stop.

Over the next twelve hours, the distortion above Ironclad Academy grew from a faint shine into something that made people stop and point.