Chapter 63: Soul Vessel [1]

Leah had personally identified her mother’s body, and now she had personally identified the woman in the recording as her mother. The two things could not both be true, and yet somehow, they were.

Although part of Victor wanted the woman inside to truly be Elena Vane, he did not allow Leah’s emotions to carry him away.

"Play it again," he said grimly.

Albert glanced at him. The vice dean seemed to want to say something, but ultimately gave up and restarted the recording.

When it began again, Victor narrowed his eyes. This time, he did not look at the woman’s face but instead focused on the small details someone might overlook: the way she walked, her mana reaction, her shadow on the ground, and...

Her chest.

After a few seconds, Combat Intuition gave him no warning of danger, while the System offered no identity information either, so Victor activated Investment Scan.

[Scanning...]

[Target does not exist within the current valid field of view.]

Unfortunately, Investment Scan could only scan a real target, not a recording. However, thanks to his keen eyes, he had already noticed something.

"She was injured."

"Yes," Cecilia said. "In several places."

"No." Victor pointed to the woman’s abdomen. "I mean she lost a lot of blood there. Her face is pale, but she doesn’t move like someone suffering from severe blood loss."

Albert frowned, realizing that this bastard wastrel was making sense once again.

"A high grade recovery potion, perhaps?" He furrowed his brows.

"No, that’s not it. There’s something else." Victor pointed to her chest. "Before she clutched it, there was no movement here."

Cecilia’s eyes changed at once.

Breathing. When a normal person spoke, their chest had to rise and fall, however slightly, but the woman in the recording barely moved at all.

"Slow it down."

The recording slowed, and everyone finally saw it. During the eleven seconds the woman appeared, she did not take a single visible breath.

Leah’s expression changed as her earlier excitement slowly faded.

"What does that mean?"

Cecilia did not answer. Instead, she took out a royal detection crystal.

"If she comes out, we check for signs of life first. That’s the only way we can find out what she is."

Victor thought of another term.

[Soul Vessel.]

Soul Vessel was one of the four keywords recovered from the fake Ron’s remaining memories.

’Soul Vessel, Experimental Zone Twelve, Astral Compatibility, and Elena.’

If those pieces of information were connected, then a terrible possibility had begun to take shape, and as Victor reached that conclusion, his eyes slowly widened.

This was not resurrection. Someone might have used something Elena left behind to create a "body" capable of carrying memories or fragments of a soul, which would also explain Leah’s bloodline resonance because that body might truly carry Vane family blood.

Victor kept the theory to himself because it was too early. Especially in front of Leah, he could not present a guess as fact and disrupt the girl’s emotions even more.

"Albert," he called.

"Yes?"

"Is Elena’s body still there?"

Leah turned sharply toward him, while Albert remained silent for several seconds.

"In her grave."

"I’m asking about her body."

"..."

For the first time, the vice dean looked genuinely troubled.

"I don’t know."

Leah stared at him as anger slowly crept across her face. "What do you mean, you don’t know?"

Albert looked at her before finally answering.

"After the academy confirmed her death three years ago, we released her remains to you. The Vane family held a private funeral afterward, and the academy never reopened the coffin."

That was perfectly normal. Who would repeatedly check whether a researcher’s body was still in its coffin three years after her burial?

But now, the question suddenly mattered a great deal.

"Seal off the graveyard too," Cecilia said at once. "Send the royal guard."

Leah parted her lips, but in the end, she did not object because she wanted to know as well.

Was her mother’s body still inside that coffin?

Just then, an academy knight hurried toward them from outside the entrance.

"Vice Dean!"

"The third barrier is losing pressure again! A high energy life form is moving through the northern zone!"

Albert turned immediately. "What level?"

"We can’t determine it precisely." The knight’s face was grim. "At least Second Tier, and it’s approaching the second isolation zone."

The next second, the entire defensive barrier bulged outward!

Boom!

Countless runes lit up red at once as a roar from inside pierced the barrier and sent a visible shock wave across the perimeter.

Leah went pale again. "It’s that thing."

"What?" Victor turned to her.

"It feels like the thing from earlier today." She pressed a hand to her chest. "But stronger."

Ding!

[Target’s Astral Core has entered a fear resonance.]

[Matching against known intelligence.]

[Match confidence: 81%.]

[Suspected target: Mutated Star Devouring Shadow Beast.]

According to the information Elias had given him, the Star Devouring Shadow Beast was level twenty seven, but now it was at least Second Tier. Either the plan had changed again, or someone had raised the danger level after realizing they had been discovered.

[High concentrations of abyssal energy and contaminated astral energy detected in combination.]

[Inference: Target has undergone artificial enhancement.]

Victor’s gaze turned cold. This was not a beast that had simply happened to advance inside the trial ground. Someone had forcibly pushed the level twenty seven Star Devouring Shadow Beast, already at the peak of First Tier, across the threshold into Second Tier.

"Evacuate every student within two kilometers," Albert ordered, his voice carrying across the entire area. "All instructors below Second Tier, fall back to the second defensive line. Academy knights, activate the third layer of the barrier."

"Your Highness Cecilia."

"Yes?"

"Take Leah and leave."

"What about you?" Cecilia frowned.

"I’m going in."

Albert raised his staff, and six golden magic rings unfolded along his arm one after another. For the first time, he released his powerful mana without restraint.

Fourth Tier!

And clearly no ordinary Fourth Tier mage!

"There are still people inside," he said. "Whether those researchers are real or not, I need to find out."

"I’m going in too," Victor said.

Albert and Cecilia both looked at him.

"You?" Albert frowned. "The thing inside is at least Second Tier."

"I know."

"You’re level twenty two."

"I know that too."

Albert’s brows twitched. "Then what the hell are you going in for?"

Victor glanced at the System.

[Astral Resistance Fragments: 3/10.]

[Soul Resistance Fragments: 4.]

[High Quality Special Energy: 1/3.]

And...

[Mana Devour: S+.]

Others wanted nothing to do with a mixture of abyssal and astral contamination, but to him, it was a resource he could use to grow stronger. Of course, that did not mean he intended to fight a Second Tier beast head on.

...He was not that stupid.

"I can handle the contamination."

Albert’s expression shifted.

"The ability you used to extract energy from Leah at the entrance today?"

"Yes."

"The risk?"

"There is some." Victor made no claim that he was invincible. "So I won’t stray far from you."

That answer seemed to reassure Albert a little.

"And if this so called Elena really is inside, Leah can’t go in," Victor continued. "But I need to confirm something for her."

Leah looked up at him.

"What?"

"What she really is."

The girl was silent for a long time before catching Victor’s sleeve.

"Take this with you."

She removed an ordinary silver chain from around her neck. A small, badly worn star shaped pendant hung from it.

"What is it?"

"My mother gave it to me on my twelfth birthday." She placed the pendant in Victor’s hand. "If it really is her in there, she’ll recognize it."

Victor looked down as the System information appeared.

[Ordinary silver pendant.]

[No combat value.]

[Traces of Elena Vane’s mental aura remain.]

"All right." He put it away, but Leah did not release his sleeve.

"One more thing."

"What?"

"Don’t die."

Victor looked at her and patted her hair. "You’re setting the bar a little low. I’m going in to get something out of this," he said. "I’m not going in to die."

Some of the tension finally left her face.

"...You’re still thinking about what you can gain at a time like this?"

"Of course," Victor said. "With this much danger, who would go in if there were nothing to gain?"

Beside them, Cecilia could not help laughing before she looked at Victor.

"I’m going too."

"Aren’t you taking Leah away?" Victor frowned.

"The royal guards can do that. Besides..." Cecilia lightly touched her chest. "There’s abyssal energy inside."

Victor understood at once.

She was refering to her Abyssal Heart Erosion Curse. If whatever was inside was connected to the power that had cursed her, it might offer a clue.

"All right," he said.

"No." Albert suddenly cut him off.

Cecilia raised an eyebrow.

"Vice Dean."

"This is the academy," Albert said bluntly. "Not the palace. If something happens to you in there, His Majesty could send people to tear down my office tomorrow."

Cecilia: "..."

In the end, Cecilia stayed behind because Albert was right. Her status was too sensitive, and if anything happened to her, the academy’s problem would become an imperial political matter.

Moreover, her curse was still present, so deliberately approaching a large concentration of abyssal energy might do her more harm than good.

A few minutes later, the third layer of the defensive barrier opened a passage just wide enough for two people. Albert entered first, and Victor followed.

The instant before he stepped through, the System finally displayed a new event notification.

[Host is voluntarily entering an area of major fate deviation.]

[Main Story Event "First Direct Confrontation with Fate" has changed.]

[Event stage updated.]

[Original Objective One: Ensure at least one investment target obtains a Mana Core Badge.]

[Original Objective Two: Investigate the source of the unusual fate fluctuation.]

[New Stage Objective: Confirm the true state of "Elena Vane."]

[New Stage Objective: Prevent the mutated Star Devouring Shadow Beast from reaching Leah Vane.]

[Hidden Objective: Unknown.]

[Danger Level: Extremely High.]

[Rewards will be calculated dynamically based on the final degree of fate deviation.]