Chapter 3: The Crown's Shield

  ?The dim, quiet living room of the orphanage was a stark contrast to the blazing afternoon sun outside. On the worn wooden table sat three dull, faintly glowing rocks—cheap, 1st-grade Aether stones.

  ?"Sit," Elias instructed. "Legs folded. Backs straight. Do not expect miracles today. Reaching Stage 1 takes time, patience, and a body willing to adapt. Today, we simply lay the foundation."

  ?They dropped to the floor, forming a triangle. The old man knelt beside them, pressing two fingers against the pulse points on their wrists to check their internal channels.

  ?He started with Val. The old man closed his eyes and nodded approvingly. "Smooth. Wide. The First Lord knew exactly what he was doing when he hid you here. Your bloodline naturally aligns with the Aether. Drawing it in will feel as natural as breathing."

  ?Next, he checked Boran. "Thick channels. Heavy. You'll need more force to pull the energy, but your frame can handle the pressure."

  ?Finally, Elias moved to Aric. He placed his fingers on Aric’s wrist, and almost immediately, a deep frown creased his forehead. He looked at the smiling, messy-haired boy with genuine pity.

  ?"Your channels are wide enough, Aric," Elias sighed, pulling his hand back. "But your body has absolutely no natural affinity for the Aether. It actively rejects the cosmic energy. Val's body will welcome it. Yours is going to fight it every step of the way. Cultivation for you is going to feel like swallowing broken glass."

  ?Aric just offered a carefree, ear-to-ear grin. "If it was easy, I’d probably get bored anyway."

  ?Elias shook his head, a fond smile breaking through his worry. "Stubborn fool. Take the stones. Close your eyes. Don't fight the ambient energy; pull it through the stone and let it wash through your veins."

  ?Aric gripped his stone. He closed his eyes and took a deep, deliberate breath.

  ?Instantly, fire ripped through his chest.

  ?It wasn't a metaphor. The microscopic particles of cosmic energy forced their way into his resisting body. Every muscle fiber spasmed. While Val sat perfectly still, a soft, warm glow radiating from his skin, Aric was instantly drenched in cold sweat. His jaw locked. The pain was blinding, but he refused to make a sound, using pure, unfiltered grit to force the chaotic energy through his stubborn veins.

  ?Beside him, Boran let out a low, guttural growl, matching Aric's stubbornness beat for beat.

  ?They sat like that for two agonizing hours into the late afternoon. What Elias didn't know—what no one knew yet—was that Aric’s brutal lack of talent came with a terrifying advantage. Because his body was constantly being pushed to its absolute breaking point, it was adapting faster than a normal human's. Every time the Aether tore his muscles, they rebuilt themselves a fraction of a second later, denser and more resilient. His suffering was buying him a speed of progression that even pampered nobles couldn't match.

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  ?When Elias finally told them to stop, none of them had broken through to the Initiate Stage, but the foundation was set. Aric collapsed onto his back, gasping for air, feeling as though he had been beaten with hammers.

  ?"Enough for today," Elias chuckled, walking toward the small kitchen. "Cultivation burns calories. Go wash up. Late lunch is almost ready."

  ?Lunch that afternoon was a loud, chaotic affair. The pain of the meditation was quickly forgotten, replaced by the warmth of the orphanage kitchen and the smell of thick root stew.

  ?Boran shoveled massive spoonfuls into his mouth, complaining loudly that Val was taking up too much space at the small table. Val just smiled politely, wiping his mouth with a cloth napkin that didn't match his ragged clothes, and made a sharp, witty joke about Boran's table manners that made Elias bark with laughter.

  ?Aric leaned back in his chair, balancing on the back two legs, his bowl entirely empty. "So," Aric said casually. "With the stipend gone, we need to figure out how to get off this rock. We just need a ship to get past the barrier."

  ?Elias stopped stirring his tea. The humor faded from the old man's face, replaced by a heavy solemnity. "Do not speak lightly of the Barrier, boy. You think it's just a wall keeping you in?"

  ?"Isn't it?" Boran grunted, swallowing a mouthful of bread.

  ?"It is a shield," Valerius corrected quietly, his noble education showing. "The universe outside is a meat grinder."

  ?Elias nodded, staring into his cup. "It doesn't just hold our solar system, Aric. The Barrier encapsulates an entire galaxy. Hundreds of billions of stars, holding trillions of human lives, all sealed safely inside."

  ?Aric let his chair drop forward, all four legs hitting the floor with a solid thud. "Why do we need a shield that big?"

  ?"Because of what happened eight hundred years ago," Elias explained, his voice dropping to a low, gritty rasp. "That was when the Dark Side—the Nether—first tore into our dimension. It flooded the universe with violent energy. Humanity was weak back then. But the other cosmic races out there... many of them look like us, but they were already strong. When the Dark Side appeared, the surge of power made all the races aware of each other."

  ?Boran scowled, his grip tightening on his spoon. "And?"

  ?"And the strong eat the weak," Elias said bluntly. "The other races saw humanity as easy prey. They began raiding our worlds. Enslavement, slaughter, harassment. We were being hunted to extinction by both the aliens and the Nether monsters."

  ?Elias looked at the three boys, making sure they understood the weight of their history. "Five hundred years ago, the First Ruler—the Progenitor—rose up. He gathered his strongest aides, unified the fractured human worlds, and established the Imperium. To save us, he didn't just fight; he severed our entire galaxy from the rest of the universe."

  ?"How do you even build a shield that big?" Val asked, his eyes wide, hearing the gritty details his noble tutors had glossed over.

  ?"With a sacred artifact," Elias whispered reverently. "The Imperial Crown. No one knows how the Progenitor found it, or what it truly costs to use it. But he tied the artifact to his very soul to forge the Barrier. And for the last hundred and fifty years, the current Ruler has sat on the throne, bearing that exact same weight. As long as the Ruler lives and wears the Crown, the shield stands. If he falls... the other races and the Dark Side flood in, and humanity ends."

  ?The kitchen went dead silent. The sheer scale of the universe, and the terrifying responsibility of the Ruler, hung heavy over the small wooden table.

  ?Aric looked down at his calloused, blistered hands. He thought about the agonizing pain of just breathing in a single speck of Aether, and then thought about the weight of holding up a shield that covered hundreds of billions of stars.

  ?Then, he looked up at Elias and flashed an unbothered, cheerful grin.

  ?"Well," Aric laughed, grabbing an apple from the center of the table and taking a massive bite. "Let's just hope the Ruler keeps breathing while we save up some Solars for a ship."