Zael stared at the floating notification for several long seconds.
A Level 100 Talent Awakening.
Even now, his heartbeat had accelerated slightly.
Not out of fear—
But anticipation.
Every awakener understood the importance of this moment.
For many, this awakening determined their future ceiling entirely.
Some people awakened monstrous talents and rose rapidly afterward.
Others received mediocre abilities and stagnated permanently despite years of effort.
This was one of the true dividing lines among awakeners.
Zael slowly exhaled.
Then—
"Proceed."
[Ding!]
[Level 100 Talent Awakening initiated.]
BOOOOOOOM!!!
The room shook violently.
A massive surge of energy exploded from Zael's body instantly before rapidly collapsing inward again.
Unlike the class advancement earlier, this process felt…different.
Colder.
Deeper.
It felt less like gaining power and more like something hidden within him awakening naturally.
His bloodline roared violently.
The Abyssal Authority within him stirred.
Even the Primordial Cube Weapon floating nearby began vibrating faintly.
Then suddenly—
Countless fragments of light appeared around Zael.
No.
Not light.
Concepts.
Broken fragments of symbols, laws, and unknown runes rotated slowly around him.
Zael's pupils constricted slightly.
Even with Eyes of Eternal Truth active, he could barely comprehend them.
Then the fragments abruptly collapsed inward—
Straight into his chest.
[Ding!]
[Talent awakened successfully.]
[Talent obtained: Origin Seed (Rare)]
The room fell silent.
Zael blinked once.
"…Rare?"
His expression became strange instantly.
That was it?
After all that buildup?
A rare-grade talent?
Even Zael himself looked mildly disappointed for a second.
Then he paused.
Because the moment the talent fully formed—
Another familiar reaction occurred.
Supreme Blessing activated automatically.
No—
Not just Supreme Blessing.
The Talent Bank itself began vibrating violently.
[Ding!]
[Abnormal Talent Detected.]
[Origin-type authority resonance confirmed.]
[Talent Bank synchronization initiated.]
Zael's eyes sharpened instantly.
Then suddenly—
CRAAAAACK!!!
The newly awakened talent shattered apart inside his consciousness.
A terrifying pressure erupted afterward.
The room darkened unnaturally.
Even space itself distorted faintly around Zael.
The system notifications began exploding rapidly.
[Ding!]
[Talent upgraded.]
[Ding!]
[Talent upgraded.]
[Ding!]
[Growth limitation removed.]
[Ding!]
[Authority synchronization complete.]
[Ding!]
[Talent has evolved.]
Then finally—
[Ding!]
[New Talent Obtained.]
[Origin Dominion (Unknown)]
BOOOOOOOOOOM!!!
A formless pressure exploded outward from Zael instinctively.
The walls cracked instantly.
The mana in the room bent unnaturally around him as though reality itself was trying to synchronize with his existence.
Zael's eyes widened slightly.
Because for a brief moment—
He felt it clearly.
The world around him responding to him.
Not mana.
Not energy.
The environment itself.
Then just as suddenly, the sensation faded again.
Zael remained sitting silently afterward while the new talent information slowly appeared before him.
And the moment he finished reading it—
Even he felt a chill run down his spine slightly.
Because this talent…
Was terrifying.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Zael was still studying the information regarding Origin Dominion when another thought suddenly surfaced in his mind.
His eyes widened slightly.
"...The Talent Bank."
He sat upright immediately.
The Talent Bank was supposed to be dormant.
After all, it had nearly destroyed itself protecting him from the erasure sequence involving Origin Genesis.The recovery period was supposed to last an entire year.
It had barely been two days.
So how exactly had it supposedly upgraded a talent?
A sense of unease rose within him.
Without hesitation, Zael opened the Talent Bank interface.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Talent Bank
Status: Dormant
Recovery Progress: 0.68%
Remaining Recovery Time: 362 Days 14 Hours 19 Minutes
Functions Available: None
Upgrade Functions: Locked
Evolution Functions: Locked
Analysis Functions: Locked ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Zael frowned.
Still dormant.
Completely dormant.
Not partially active.
Not recovering rapidly.
Dormant.
Exactly as it should be.
"...Then what happened?"
His gaze lingered on the interface for several moments before another detail caught his attention.
A line near the bottom.
One that he hadn't noticed before.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Last Recorded Action:
Emergency Preservation Protocol Executed
Result: Host successfully retained during Conceptual Erasure Event
System Integrity Preserved
Core Functions Entered Forced Dormancy ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Zael froze.
Then understanding slowly dawned.
The Talent Bank hadn't upgraded Origin Seed.
It couldn't.
The Talent Bank was asleep.
It was recovering from saving him.
Saving him...
A faint chill ran through Zael's spine.
Back then, everything had happened too quickly.
The battlefield.
Kael.
The erasure.
The chaos.
He never truly stopped to think about what had happened.
Now, looking at the notification...
The reality became terrifyingly clear.
The Talent Bank hadn't simply protected him.
It had protected itself.
If Zael had been erased—
Its host would have vanished.
Its existence would have vanished.
Everything connected to him would have vanished.
The Talent Bank had essentially thrown itself in front of a conceptual guillotine.
And paid the price for it.
The reason it was dormant now wasn't because it upgraded Ascendant Echo.
It was because it had survived the impossible.
Because somehow...
Against all logic...
Against a force capable of erasing existence itself...
It had preserved both itself and its host.
Zael stared at the panel quietly.
For the first time, he felt a strange sense of gratitude toward the mysterious artifact.
The Talent Bank had always felt more like a system than a companion.
A tool.
A cheat.
Something useful.
But now?
It felt different.
Without it, he would quite literally not exist anymore.
The room fell silent.
After several moments, Zael finally closed the interface.
"Get some rest," he muttered quietly.
The words sounded ridiculous considering he was talking to a dormant system.
Yet somehow it felt appropriate.
Then his attention returned to the matter at hand.
Origin Dominion.
If the Talent Bank wasn't responsible...
Then the evolution could only have come from one place.
Him.
Or more specifically—
The absurd collection of authorities and sovereign-level talents residing inside him.
The thought was somehow even more concerning.
Because it meant his growth was beginning to influence itself.
And that kind of self-evolving system...
Had no predictable limit.