Chapter 357: All Four Titan Spirits Finally Wake Up!

Inside the bathhouse, Luke remained submerged in the warm water while leaning against the edge of the pool, although his thoughts had already drifted far away from Kharenthyr.

"How are Aurielle and the others doing...?"

He tried once again to sense the connection with his clones, but just like before, something within the Dragon Continent seemed to be interfering with it, preventing him from receiving anything clearly.

That failure reminded Luke of another problem he had been putting aside.

His Shadow of Nyx was still only a D-Rank ability.

Although the System had granted him the legendary racial ability itself, its current strength still depended upon Luke’s own realm unless he personally learned and mastered the underlying principles, or eventually raised the ability all the way to SSS-Rank. Against opponents near his own level, that limitation wasn’t particularly troublesome, but Luke had been fighting beings far above D-Rank often enough to understand that even a legendary ability could become unreliable when the difference in realm became too large.

"Haa..."

With a quiet sigh, Luke relaxed farther against the side of the pool while staring absently across the clear water, wondering what he should focus on next.

At that exact moment, however, four small figures suddenly materialized in front of him.

"Huh?"

Luke opened his half-closed eyes, and the instant he recognized the four familiar figures floating above the water, a genuine smile appeared on his face.

"Welcome back, everyone."

His mood visibly brightened as Caelith gently descended onto his right shoulder, while Nyx settled comfortably on the left. Myrkhal, naturally choosing the least normal place available, sat directly on top of Luke’s head and began swinging his small legs back and forth, lightly hitting Luke’s forehead with every movement, while Sevaroth remained floating in front of him.

"Yeah, it seems quite some time has passed," Caelith said gently as she looked around the unfamiliar bathhouse.

Luke was just about to explain everything that had happened during their absence when Nyx raised a hand and stopped him.

"Sevaroth already told us what happened while we were asleep, so you don’t need to explain everything again."

Luke glanced toward Sevaroth before giving a small nod, while Nyx looked around at the golden walls and distant edge of the oversized pool.

"So where are we now?"

"In Kharenthyr, the Dragon Continent, where my dragon wife lives."

Luke paused for a moment before adding with a helpless expression, "She kidnapped me from the Human Continent."

The four Titan spirits immediately reacted with quiet amusement, and even Nyx couldn’t completely hide his smile after hearing that Luke had somehow managed to get kidnapped by his own wife.

"Hmm, that explains it," Sevaroth said while sensing the surrounding atmosphere. "The air here feels different, and even this palace isn’t as simple as it looks."

Luke nodded, although seeing all four of them together reminded him of something far more important than the palace around them.

There was one question he had wanted to ask for a long time.

"Everyone, can you help me with my cultivation?"

The playful atmosphere faded slightly as Nyx, Caelith, and Sevaroth immediately turned their attention toward him, while Myrkhal continued swinging his legs from the top of Luke’s head as though the matter had nothing to do with him.

Nyx smiled faintly.

"We already discussed that before we went to sleep, although we were forced into slumber before we had the chance to explain it to you."

Luke immediately became more attentive, but Nyx remained silent for a few seconds before his expression grew noticeably more serious.

"Luke, I don’t know exactly how your System transformed you into a real Titan, but from what we can sense, your current state is still incomplete."

Luke’s smile faded.

Nyx continued, "Only a small fraction of our bloodlines has truly merged with you, while most of your original bloodline still retains human characteristics."

Luke listened carefully without interrupting, and after Nyx finished speaking, Caelith continued the explanation.

"The clearest example is your current stage. Your System made you a low-level Titan appropriate for your Silver-stage, or D-Rank, body, instead of turning you into a D-Rank Firstborn Titan."

Luke looked toward her in confusion.

"Aren’t those the same thing?"

Nyx shook his head.

"No. Although we understand why your System did it this way, because genuine Firstborn Titans were born at much higher realms, where our bodies were already capable of carrying the power contained within our bloodlines."

He looked directly at Luke.

"Your current body can’t."

"..."

Luke fell silent.

If that was really the case, then the difference between what he currently was and a genuine Firstborn Titan was considerably greater than he had assumed, which also meant that reaching that level through ordinary cultivation might take far longer than he wanted.

Caelith noticed the change in his expression and smiled gently.

"However, after seeing that your System successfully placed four of our bloodlines inside you and somehow allowed them to coexist without clashing, we reached another conclusion."

Luke turned slightly toward her.

"What conclusion?"

"Even though we can’t reproduce what your System did, you already possess Myrkhal’s bloodline, and that gives us another possibility."

The moment his name was mentioned, Myrkhal immediately became more energetic, swinging his legs faster while grabbing a handful of Luke’s black hair and lightly pulling it.

Luke ignored him.

"Can you stop talking in riddles and just tell me?"

Nyx gave a faint smile before finally explaining.

"Fine. Rather than turning you into a Titan body capable of merely carrying all of our individual bloodlines, we’re thinking of doing something completely different."

Luke waited.

"We want to turn your body into something capable of creating and sustaining an entirely new bloodline, one formed by combining all of ours."

"..."

Luke froze.

For several seconds, even the faint movement of the water around him seemed to disappear from his attention as he processed what Nyx had just said.

The idea was absurd enough that even the Origin Titan would likely have been shocked by it.

Luke was already doing something that should have been extremely difficult, because four Forbidden Titan bloodlines existed inside the same body without destroying one another, while at his peak state he could still access the complete power belonging to each individual Titan.

Yet this method would take that concept much further.

Instead of merely allowing Luke to wield each Forbidden Titan separately, the bloodlines themselves would begin merging into a completely new lineage, which meant that in the future, Luke might even become capable of combining two or more Forbidden elements directly rather than simply switching between them.

Even Myrkhal’s Titan Fusion was still different from what Nyx was proposing, because despite Myrkhal’s ability to imitate and combine Titan characteristics through his Faces, even he had never been capable of perfectly fusing multiple Forbidden Titans into one permanent existence. His Faces simply couldn’t withstand the weight of those bloodlines indefinitely, while Luke’s System and Nexus Harmony had somehow already created the foundation necessary to make such coexistence possible.

"Is that actually possible?"

Luke’s voice carried genuine disbelief, but Nyx nodded without hesitation.

"It should be."

He paused briefly before continuing, "If this succeeds, you won’t simply become a stronger version of your current Silver-stage Titan body. You will become an entirely different kind of Titan, although the true path won’t begin until you break through into the Golden realm."

Luke’s attention sharpened even further.

Nyx continued, "And once the new body stabilizes, you won’t need to rely on Titan transformation just to access the physical advantages of your bloodline, because your normal body itself will gradually begin carrying those Titan characteristics."

Caelith nodded beside him.

"After all, a Titan of the same realm is naturally far stronger than most other races, because that strength belongs to the body itself rather than coming from a temporary transformation."

Those words immediately reminded Luke of another question that had bothered him for quite some time.

"Then how exactly does my Titan transformation work?"

The four spirits looked toward him.

Luke continued, "I mean, I can already use many of your abilities in my normal form, but once I transform, I can use your powers much more freely, without those restrictions, while also gaining the Titan physical stats."

For a moment, all four Titan spirits simply looked at him.

Then amused smiles appeared on their faces.

"You still haven’t figured that out by yourself?"

Luke tilted his head slightly because, despite everything he had learned about Titans so far, he genuinely hadn’t understood what his transformation actually represented.

Seeing his confusion, Sevaroth finally took over the explanation.

"Haven’t you ever wondered why maintaining your Titan form consumes so much more stamina and energy than using your abilities normally?"

Luke immediately nodded, because that question had bothered him more than once, especially during longer battles where the difference in consumption became painfully obvious.

Sevaroth continued, "That’s because your Titan transformation isn’t actually turning you into something completely different. Your System is simply forcing the Titan bloodline hidden inside your current body into an overexcited state, bringing out far more of its power than your normal body can naturally sustain."

Luke’s expression changed slightly as he listened.

"In other words," Sevaroth continued, "your transformation temporarily forces your current-realm Titan bloodline toward its prime state, which is why you can use its physical strength, racial characteristics, and abilities with far fewer restraints."

Luke finally began connecting everything.

"So if my bloodline became pure enough..."

"You wouldn’t need that temporary state anymore," Sevaroth finished for him. "Your normal body itself would already possess those characteristics, so there would be nothing left for the transformation to forcibly awaken."

Luke became silent for a moment as the explanation finally made sense.

His Titan transformation wasn’t giving him strength that didn’t belong to him; instead, the System was forcibly drawing out the portion of Titan power already hidden within his current-realm bloodline, temporarily pushing his body into a state it wasn’t naturally capable of maintaining.

"No wonder the stamina consumption is so ridiculous."