While Kaelen was building his foundation with the red-core liquid, deep in the reaches of space far beyond the fortresses anchoring the universe, a Veyron ancestor watched the void.
This was an entity of the Mesh Level, a being whose existence was woven into the fabric of reality itself.
He stood silent, observing a phenomenon that defied the logic of the inner sectors: various universes were thinning and converging toward a single, unknown point of origin.
Even at his level of power, the reason for this cosmic migration remained a mystery, a shifting of the tide that signaled a coming storm.
At that moment, his communication device vibrated, pulling his focus away from the bleeding edges of space.
He looked down to see a high-priority report on Kaelen—a child who, in terms of age, was a mere blink of an eye compared to him.
As he scanned the data, the Ancestor felt a rare spark of genuine amazement.
The boy's ribbon structure was a mirror of his own; Kaelen didn't just wield energy, he conceptualized it with a mathematical precision that was decades ahead of his years.
To Kaelen, ribbons were not just "power"—they were Turing Tapes and Mathematical Ribbons, a programmable language used to rewrite the laws of the physical world.
The Ancestor smiled to himself; he recognized that spark of curiosity, the same hunger for logic that had once driven him to reach the Mesh.
The Known Myths
In the Federation's public records, the path to strength is a well-defined ladder: Thread, Strand, Loom, and Weave.
To the average citizen, a "Weave Master" is a god-like figure who can stitch their energy into the atmosphere of a planet.
The levels beyond—Net, Fabric, and Mesh—are known to the public, but they are not understood deeply.
People are aware that such titans exist, but they generally have no idea how these people look or how they function.
They are the legendary protectors of the Great Houses, figures who have transcended the need for a physical "body" as the masses understand it.
But for the Veyron Ancestors, these levels were not just titles; they were the heavy burden of guardianship.
The Protectors of the Edge
Deep within the true Void, these Mesh-level entities stood guard, their energy forming a fundamental lattice that interfaced directly with the vacuum of space.
Floating in the purple-black silence, they remained anchored by their primary tools: the Reality Grinders.
These were not simple weapons, but massive, fractal constructs positioned behind their backs.
Composed of hundreds of thousands of circular blades, each disc revolved within a larger circle in an infinite, shimmering loop of motion.
Using these, the Ancestors could literally grind the Mesh of reality, breaking down rogue space-time anomalies before they could infect the galaxy.
Before them, the thinning of the universes continued, merging like drops of oil in water.
"The collision is inevitable," one Ancestor communicated through the Mesh, his voice vibrating through the vacuum. "But we cannot see the core."
They were the strongest beings the Federation could imagine, yet they stood in fear of a truth they weren't permitted to know.
The Weight of the Secret
Back at the Academy, Kaelen Veyron was oblivious to the cosmic dread of his ancestors, though he was dealing with a "Grinder" of his own.
The high-grade Chrome-Osmium had been fully assimilated, and Kaelen could feel the metal particles suspended in his thick Crimson Threads.
They felt like heavy, electrified cables beneath his skin, vibrating with a resonance that demanded release.
[METAL SATURATION: 100%,] Redveil's voice echoed with a hint of that ancient, Grid-level authority.
[STABILIZING SLOT 13: ARMOR FIELD. READY TO TEST PHYSICAL OUTPUT.]
Kaelen stood in the Academy's private training room, focusing on his right hand to manifest a temporary beam of thread power.
Because of the sheer thickness of his ribbons, the beam didn't look like a small spark, but a ball of power the size of a basketball, swirling with violent crimson energy.
A training dummy, reinforced with Level 50 Strand-grade alloys, stood before him.
Kaelen extended a finger to test the attack power.
The moment his finger tapped the dummy, the energy absorption pack (Slot 12) released a micro-pulse of pressurized energy to compensate for the sudden contact.
BOOM.
The shockwave shattered the reinforced glass of the observation deck and pulverized the alloy dummy into a fine grey mist.
The recoil sent Kaelen sliding backward, his heavy frame carving deep rifts into the obsidian-steel floor.
"Redveil! Hide the signature! Now!" Kaelen panicked as the alarm sirens began to wail.
[SENSORS MANIPULATED,] Redveil responded instantly. [LOOPING DATA LOGS. RECORDING THE CAUSE AS 'INTERNAL CALIBRATION ERROR' IN THE ROOM'S GRAVITY GENERATOR.]
Kaelen quickly retracted the power, his hands returning to their soft, non-armored appearance just as Professor Andrew burst through the doors.
"Veyron! What happened?"
Kaelen looked down at his palms, putting on his best "innocent" chubby boy expression.
"I... I just touched it, and the gravity went whoosh, Professor. I think the room is broken."
Thanks to his Secondary Computing and Redveil's data-cloaking, the Professor didn't suspect a Level 15 Thread-user of such destruction.
But deep inside, Kaelen felt the hunger again—the threads wanted more metal, and Redveil wanted more power.
And far away, his ancestors were analyzing different unverses just to keep the universe safe.