The voice in his head went silent. Silas's frown deepened, his mind racing. The notifications confirmed everything. This was the first time since he had transmigrated to this world that something had been powerful enough and bold enough to try and spy on him directly, forcing the system itself to intervene. The woman in Draven's dream hadn't just been talking about the future; she was part of a world far more dangerous than he had anticipated, and she had noticed him.
Looking into Draven's worried eyes, Silas knew he couldn't keep this to himself. He took a steadying breath. "Draven," he said, his voice quiet but serious. "That wasn't all. Just now, in my head... I got a warning."
He explained the system's alerts ,the prying entity, the forced retreat, and the urgent command to get stronger. In this world everyone have a system like panel in their head , from which they can check their status panel for normal details , not exaggerated as silas's Divination skill.
Hearing this, Draven's own face darkened. The implications were terrifying. Without another word, his arms tightened around Silas, pulling him into a fierce, protective embrace, as if he could physically shield him from the unseen dangers that were now closing in.
Inside the beautiful courtyard, the girl had not moved.
She sat perfectly still at the center table, her white dress pooling around her like mist, watching the projection that hung in the air before her. In it, she could see Draven's room clearly. She watched Silas enter, watched Draven wake with a jolt, watched him cling to Silas and begin to speak.
At first, her expression was one of calm curiosity. She listened as Draven recounted the garden, the lake, the warning. But as he reached the part about the flower, as he opened his palm to reveal the impossible proof, her calm began to crack.
She leaned forward, her dark eyes narrowing. She needed to know. She needed to see the thread that connected this human, Silas, to everything.
She reached out. Not with her hand, but with her will, a tendril of consciousness as fine as spider silk, slipping through the projection to gently pry at the edges of Silas's being.
The instant she touched him, the world inverted.
The warm sunlight of the courtyard vanished. The scent of flowers was ripped away, replaced by a suffocating, absolute cold. She was no longer sitting. She was falling, or perhaps being held, in a space of pure, starless dark that had no up or down.
And something was looking back.
It was not a person. It was a presence, vast and ancient and utterly without mercy. She felt its gaze land on her, and it was like being pinned beneath a mountain. Her hand, still resting on the table in the real world, began to shake violently. A cold sweat bloomed across her forehead in an instant, and her heart, a heart that had not known true fear in millennia, began to hammer against her ribs like a trapped bird.
A single, thin trickle of blood escaped the corner of her perfect lips.
What she saw was not a face, only two terrifying eyes staring back , she felt them, staring through her, into her, seeing every secret she had ever kept. Then the voice came. It did not speak into her ears. It resonated inside her bones, inside her soul, a sound that was both a whisper and the grinding of worlds.
"Don't you dare try to peer over me again. You're not qualified !"
It was not a request. It was a law, carved into the fabric of her existence. A blatant, absolute threat.
In the next breath, she was back.
The courtyard was exactly as it had been. The sun was warm, the swans glided on the lake, the butterflies danced. But the beauty was a lie now. The air felt thin. The colors were too bright, too fragile.
She slumped back into her chair, her body suddenly weak. Her hand flew to her chest, clutching at her dress as she gasped for air that would not satisfy her lungs.
The catastrophe she had shown Draven, the tide of monsters and the death of worlds, it was a horror she had witnessed countless times. But it was a known horror. This was different.
This was something that could destroy her with a thought.
For the first time in an existence longer than empires, the beautiful, untouchable girl in the white dress was truly, deeply afraid.
She murmured to herself, her voice shaking, "Draven... I hope you'll be okay with him. Or else we're doomed. No one... no one can fight that being."
She let out a shaky breath, a bitter vindication in her eyes. "I told you Silas was not simple."
Inside Draven's room
Silas could see Draven was still spiraling, his thoughts trapped in the vision of the apocalypse. Without a word, he leaned forward and pressed a soft, grounding kiss to Draven's lips.
Draven froze, then melted into it. His ragged breathing slowly evened out, his shoulders relaxing for the first time since he woke up. Silas gently pulled back, and Draven instinctively chased his lips for more, before stopping himself. He remembered they were in the middle of something far more important, and that Silas had only done it to calm him.
Silas smiled faintly and asked, "Can I check the flower now?"
Draven nodded and carefully placed the beautiful, glowing flower into Silas's palm.
The instant Silas touched it, his mind buzzed.
[Ding!]
[Host, system has come back online! And you have even unlocked a secret function of this system!]
Silas asked silently, 'What function?'
[Ding!]
[Congratulations, Host. You have unlocked the hidden function: "Doting Love".]
[Doting Love: The deeper your love flourishes with your partner, the greater the multiplication rewards you will receive.
Currently, your love value with your lover, Draven, is 150. You both trust each other implicitly. Therefore, you may multiply any single item by 150 times.]
[This function can be used once per month. It will refresh automatically.]
Silas's eyes widened in surprise. It was an incredibly useful ability. If they could multiply any powerful item, they would instantly have 150 of them.
But after a moment, his excitement cooled and he frowned. He asked in his head, 'But what happens if we use the multiplication? Will it reduce our affection?'
[Ding!]
[Host, you are overthinking!
Using the function will not change your love value. The moment your love value increases, you will receive another use of the multiplication function, even within the same month.]
Silas was still holding the flower, its faint glow reflecting in his palm. He murmured under his breath, "Divination."
For a single second his eyes changed color, a pale gold flickering through the iris. The system panel unfolded in front of him and his whole body gave a small, involuntary shake.
[Flower of Life: Blooms only once after 10,000 years of continuous nurturing. It is always surrounded by identical decoys, fakes born solely to protect the true bloom. Found only in the 'Land of Life'.
Effect: can resurrect anyone who has died, as long as their body remains intact.]
He just stared at the description. Ten thousand years for one flower, and most seekers would pick a fake without ever knowing. And resurrection. That was not healing, that was undoing death itself, something even noone in this world could think of ...
In his mind he ordered, System,' use multiplication on this flower.'
[Ding!]
[Target locked: 'Flower of Life']
[Multiplication applied ×150]
[Rewards granted: 149 additional Flowers of Life stored in system space.]
A quiet rush of relief moved through him. He now had 150 chances to pull someone back. Combined with the medicines already in his store, if Draven's vision came true, they would have an advantage no army could buy.
He closed his hand around the original bloom, then opened it again and placed it back in Draven's palm. "Listen," he said, his voice low, "this is..."
He told Draven everything, word for word from the panel.
Draven's reaction was immediate and physical. At first his fingers tightened around the stem as if he was afraid it would vanish. His eyes went wide, not in disbelief but in calculation. He was thinking why that girl suddenly gave him this valuable thing. The color drained from his face for a heartbeat...
Draven grabbed Silas by the shoulders, his grip tight enough to tremble.
"Silas. You should have this flower," he said, his voice low and urgent. "If one day you face an enemy you can't fight, and I'm not there, you put this in your mouth and you keep fighting. If... if something happens to you, you'll resurrect, like you said."
He didn't wait for an answer. He pulled Silas into a hard hug and buried his face against his neck. The dream had hit him harder than any real wound. The monsters, the warning about Silas, the feeling of being completely powerless against whoever that girl was, it all funneled down to one simple terror. Silas was the only person he had in this world, and he could not lose him.
Silas rubbed slow circles on Draven's back. "Don't worry, Drav. I'm holding a huge secret inside me, and today I just got a notification from the system I told you about. It got a new function."
Draven pulled back just enough to see his face, confused. He doesn't care about any secret that Silas holds, he only wanted him to stay safe, asked immediately, "Which function?"
Silas felt his ears go hot. He couldn't bring himself to say the words 'doting love' out loud. "It... it lets me multiply any item. A hundred and fifty times in a month."
Draven frowned, turning the number over in his mind. "Maybe that's something from your unique class?"
Silas just nodded. He didn't tell him the rest, not that he wasn't born in this world, not that he had transmigrated here, not that the system measured their love to fuel its power. He was afraid Draven would think he was making up stories, or worse, that he would look at him differently.
He sighed and glanced down at the Flower of Life still in Draven's hand. "But I'm confused. Why did she give you that flower?"
Draven shook his head. "I don't know. Maybe she doesn't want to interfere in our world. Or she can't."
"I think it's the second one," Silas said, thinking it through. "She told you that you'll know her identity in time, right? I think this is related to your past. Do you remember what I saw through my skill?"