CHAPTER 217: EX 217. IT’S DONE

Leon frowned at the page, eyes narrowing at the scrawled madness. The ink twisted into symbols and slashes, nonsense layered over nonsense. His finger traced a jagged line as though meaning might suddenly surface, but all he felt was the weight of a headache pressing in.

A prickle stirred in his senses. Subtle at first, like the wrong note in a song, then sharp enough to freeze him.

In a heartbeat, he was on his feet. His chair screeched against the floor as his sword flashed into existence, the blade leveled at the shelf behind him.

His pulse slowed, eyes narrowing on the shadow that clung there.

A quiet shuffle. Then;

A rodent darted from the darkness, squeaking as it scurried across the floor and vanished into the corner.

Leon exhaled, lowering his weapon. His shoulders sagged as he muttered,

"Was I just scared by a rat...?"

The blade dissolved back into his inventory with a faint shimmer. He rubbed his forehead, annoyance flickering across his expression, and sank back into his seat. The journal lay open, waiting.

He turned the page. Still nothing but that indecipherable scrawl.

"What could the emperor have seen to write like a madman? And why let this nonsense get released to the public if it only confused them more?" Leon tapped the page with irritation, muttering as though Julius himself could hear. "He could’ve skipped the whole thing instead of wasting paper."

He flipped through page after page of chaos, until he stopped.

The words returned. Neat, deliberate strokes of ink stared back at him.

Leon’s brows furrowed. "Why did it return to normal...?"

Questions pressed against his mind, but there was only one way to know. He leaned forward and read.

The very first line struck him like a hammer:

"All power comes from the Source."

Leon froze, his grip tightening on the edge of the journal.

"The source...?" He mouthed the words, tasting their weight. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

He kept reading. The journal’s tone had shifted. The madness was gone, replaced by calm precision. Julius explained that some time had passed since that indescribable vision. He had fallen unconscious after the encounter, but upon waking, he claimed to know exactly where to begin.

Where to develop his core.

Leon’s eyes lingered on the line. His mind turned over the implication like a blade in his hand.

"So that’s it..." he whispered.

****

After Julius’s encounter with the Source, his body collapsed as if the weight of the cosmos itself had pressed him down. He lingered in darkness, unconscious for days. If not for Luna’s tireless care, her pale paws glowing faintly with the light of their mother’s gift, he might never have woken again.

When at last his eyes opened, his breath shallow but steady, he knew one thing for certain. Much of the knowledge he had touched was too vast, too crushing for a mortal frame to endure. The fragments had slipped from his mind like water through cupped hands. But the most important truth had remained, carved into his soul like scripture:

All power comes from the Source.

Luna sat beside him, relief written in her expression, but also suspicion. Her golden eyes narrowed as she studied his trembling fingers and hollow gaze. His eyes were sunken, his hands shook slightly with every movement.

"Brother," she said cautiously, "are you sure you don’t need more rest?"

Julius’s lips curved into a weary smile. "Why do you think that?"

She hesitated. In her mind, he looked like someone drained dry by a pleasure serpent, the kind of ruin no herb or healer could mend. The thought burned in her chest, and her jaw tightened.

"Should I tell Mother?" she asked finally, her tone sharp.

"No." Julius’s voice cut across her thought, calm but resolute. "Now that I know all energy comes from the Source, I just have to connect to it again... to create my core."

Luna’s expression darkened, her jaw clenching. "Brother, I can’t let you take that thing again. It nearly destroyed you. It’s doing more harm than good."

She meant the vapor, the pale red essence he had inhaled, the catalyst of his first journey.

Julius only smiled faintly at her defiance. "I don’t need that to connect to the Source."

Her eyes widened, shock breaking her composure. "You don’t...?"

"Yes," he answered, though he offered no explanation. His emerald eyes shimmered faintly, light dancing within them like stars reflected on still water.

’With my eyes,’ he thought, ’I will be able to connect just fine.’

And then, before Luna’s startled gaze, his vision shifted.

Her form wavered, peeling away like smoke until he saw her essence. She became an astral silhouette, translucent and radiant, her wolf core glowing at her center. Around her, faint silver strings stretched outward, tethering her core to countless others.

Beyond her, the web spread endlessly. Beasts, humans, everything that lived, threads of essence tangled together, all pulling toward the same unseen point. The Source.

Julius’s breath caught as he watched. This time, he had entered without smoke, without ritual. His eyes had opened the way.

****

With his new sight, Julius found clarity. It wasn’t just a gift, it was a key. Through those emerald eyes, he understood what truly separated man from beast.

The beasts were born with cores, each one a natural tether to the Source. But Julius saw something deeper. The core wasn’t merely a crystal sitting in the body; it was a resonance. The body itself had to synchronize with the core, every heartbeat, every breath, every flicker of motion aligned to the same rhythm as the Source. That was why beasts could wield their power instinctively while men remained powerless.

So Julius devoted himself to the impossible. With his ’Core Gaze’, he studied every creature around him, wolves, serpents, birds, even insects, watching the smallest rise and fall of their chests, the precise flex of muscle and tendon, the way essence flowed with movement. He memorized it all. He mimicked it all. From the most delicate breath to the most primal strike, he wove their instincts into his own body, training until every fiber of his being could mirror the nature of a core-born beast.

Decades passed. His body aged, but his obsession never faltered. Failure after failure carved trenches in his spirit, but Julius never let go.

Then, sixty-seven years later, when the weight of a century bent his shoulders and his hair had turned white as ash, the fruits of his labor finally ripened.

Beneath the crashing force of a waterfall, Julius sat cross-legged, his frail frame unmoving against the torrent. Emerald eyes remained closed, his breathing steady, controlled, and unnatural in its perfection. Luna rested nearby on a smooth black rock, watching silently as she had done countless times before.

Suddenly, Julius’s eyes snapped open. They glowed like cut gems, emerald fire burning from within.

A pressure erupted from him, vast, suffocating, and undeniable. The air trembled, the waterfall bent in its descent, and even the stones beneath him cracked.

Luna bolted upright, her golden eyes wide, with shock.

Julius rose slowly to his feet, water cascading down his frame, yet not a drop seemed to touch him. He exhaled once, calm and certain, and his voice carried over the roar of the falls.

"It is done."