Darian didn’t hesitate for even a second. His mind worked fast, and he activated the rings on his arms. Instantly, he felt the connection to the three shadow spirits.
Those three had been with them the whole time — their emergency backup plan. Explaining the existence of those summons would’ve been a huge pain, so Darian had ordered them to stay hidden unless it was a life-or-death situation.
But... what kind of emergency could happen during a rookie tournament? Everything and everyone was being monitored nonstop.
Darian sensed that all the spirits were still alive and quietly inside the three. He let out a breath of relief — that meant they weren’t in immediate danger.
He signaled to Niara to go to the twins, then focused on a figure off to the side. It was Silas.
Since he had just recently joined the clan, he hadn’t received anything yet. Leander and Rhea had set up a strict protocol for newcomers, so the two newest members were still under observation.
As Darian got closer, he activated his white power to check him out... but Silas didn’t react — his body was physically fine. So Darian focused on his soul...
His eyes widened. Silas’s soul was terrifyingly damaged. It was hard to believe the guy was even still alive.
The only thing keeping him tethered to this world... was sheer willpower. But that alone wouldn’t work miracles. If no one helped him soon, he was going to die.
White power, in theory, could heal soul wounds. But Darian was still way too weak — its effects on that kind of damage were pretty limited or even useless if the injury was too severe. He knew that, and since he had plenty of money, he came prepared.
He pulled out an extremely rare recovery artifact he’d bought from the empire and activated it on Silas... but it barely did anything.
That was expected. It was the most expensive soul-healing item in the empire, but it could only handle minor damage. Still, it managed to temporarily reconnect the fragments of Silas’s soul.
The soul was a kind of body made from unique energy that wrapped around the consciousness. That energy was called soul power.
To picture Silas’s current state — imagine a porcelain vase shattered into a million cracks, on the verge of crumbling completely. That artifact was like glue holding it together. If it had been a small crack, it could’ve fixed it easily. But in his condition, it would only last a few seconds before falling apart again.
Fully focused, Darian activated his rings.
Thankfully, he could control the three energies of life — and one of them was soul power. Using the artifact as a crutch, he forced Silas’s soul to stabilize with the help of the rings — like making the glue instantly solidify and not fade away.
His forehead was drenched in sweat. Darian still didn’t have much experience with life energies and was learning as he went. He stayed locked in focus for several minutes.
Then he let out a long breath...
"He’s stable," he muttered, staring at the unconscious teen. "Just stable, not healed... I’ll need to find a source of soul power to actually fix this."
Unfortunately, the Stellar Ores he had with that power were still back in the other universe. He’d either have to bring one back, or find something else. Until then... Silas wasn’t waking up.
Without wasting time, Darian turned to Niara, who was with the twins. She had a deeply pained look on her face as she sensed their condition. She had only spent a little over half a year with them, but already saw them as incredibly important people — just like Darian.
As he walked up, Darian reached out and touched Lucy’s forehead.
’Yinuo, what happened?’ Darian asked mentally, speaking to Lucy’s shadow spirit. In the past, Yinuo had been a Spiritual Guardian from a distant planet, so she already had a name and could communicate perfectly.
’Master, it was the artifact in this hall. After about an hour, I sensed something hidden and subtle activate and disappear inside it. Lucy and the others couldn’t leave the mental world, and their souls started taking damage... in the end, the three of us linked up and tried everything we could to get them out...’
She spoke with distress, but thanks to the new ability Darian developed with the help of that supreme artifact, the shadow spirits could now communicate and even secretly share power. That was a huge factor here.
’We’re sorry... We couldn’t get them out quickly, we’re still figuring out how to use this new ability. We tried really hard, but they were already badly hurt. So we sealed their souls into our runes until you arrived.’
That explained why Niara couldn’t sense their souls earlier. Darian took a deep breath... then clenched his fists so tightly that blood started dripping.
He forced himself to calm down. Then he asked coldly, ’You did everything from inside them and didn’t come out, right?’
’Yes. It wasn’t necessary. We did exactly as you ordered,’ she answered quickly, clearly tense.
Darian nodded. Whoever caused all this couldn’t have known about the presence of their partners. On top of that, the spirits acted without ever leaving or being noticed by the hidden eyes in this place.
As for Silas... it was a near-miracle that Darian found him still alive. If he’d been just a little later, the guy would’ve been dead already. In the end... they were insanely lucky no one had died.
Darian pulled out a few more artifacts identical to the one he’d used on Silas. Yinuo released Lucy’s soul, and Darian repeated the whole process — though this time, it was way easier.
Lucy’s injuries were serious, but they didn’t come close to what Silas had gone through. Once he was done, he turned to Niara, who was staring at him without blinking.
’My white power’s still too weak for this, and I don’t have the experience to handle soul power properly. She’s stable now, and later, with some soul pills I can easily buy, she’ll recover fully.’
Niara’s eyes widened. ’But... the tournament...’
Darian didn’t answer. He just turned to Lucius next. His partner was called Claude, and he said the same thing Yinuo had — all three of them had sensed something subtle appear inside the hall’s artifact, then vanish. They didn’t know what it was, but they were sure it disappeared without leaving a trace.
Darian healed Lucius, then Veyle.
None of the three were in any immediate danger. With just a bit of soul power found in high-grade natural pills, Darian could fully heal them. He didn’t have those pills right now — and even if he did, it would still take a few days for them to recover.
Silas, though, was going to be way more complicated. But Darian could handle that later.
The air around him shifted. His eyes looked like they were burning with uncontrollable rage.
’They dared hurt the ones close to me...’ He had to take several deep breaths to calm himself down.
Niara, right beside him, was radiating the same fury. If she were in her real body, she probably would’ve exploded by now.
Darian pulled out his leader’s badge. Without hesitation, he squeezed it tight.
A soft cracking sound echoed from within. Instantly, an emergency signal went off.