CHAPTER 437: ANOTHER SPACE TEAR?

[Talent Detected]

[Mutating Talent Detected]

[Executor Class Detected]

[Existence – Null Heart – Detected]

[Chains of the Fallen – Detected]

...

...

[Talent Upgrade Path Finalised]

[Initiating Talent Upgrade...]

The notifications flashed one after another, and before I could even take a breath, the upgrade began.

A space tear split the air before me, silent but absolute. On the other side was nothing but pure black void. Then, faintly, an orange glow spread across that darkness, like the first spark in an endless night.

From the tear floated out a small core, burning with weak, flickering orange flames. It looked fragile, covered in cracks as though it might break apart at any moment. Yet the presence it carried froze the entire world around me. The Essence around me stopped flowing. My breath halted. Even my heartbeat stilled.

The core drifted closer, slow but unstoppable, until it touched my chest. In the next instant, it pierced through my flesh and bone, embedding itself deep inside me, nestling perfectly in the center of my chest, as if it had always belonged there.

The moment it settled, a wave of blistering heat rushed through my body. All the violet Essence I had painstakingly generated surged toward the new core as if summoned. In an instant, every last unit was drained, devoured.

I panicked for a heartbeat then I saw what it was doing. The Essence was pouring into the cracks, filling them, healing them. Slowly, painfully, the fractures closed, piece by piece.

Then agony lanced through me. A tearing pain ripped across my insides as I felt new pathways forming, linking the familiar Generator Core within my heart to this newborn core in my chest.

By the time the pain receded, the transformation was complete. The core no longer glowed orange. Its color had shifted, deep violet now, with flames of the same hue burning steadily over its surface.

A violet core, crowned in violet fire, now floated in the void of my chest.

But it didn’t end there.

My vision shifted, pulled inward as if my consciousness was drawn directly into the core. And what I saw left me stunned.

It wasn’t just a core. It was a world.

Unlike the Null Heart, which was a vast black void where my summon cores resided, this was a realm steeped in violet light. Landmasses floated inside it—no, not landmasses. Islands, adrift in the violet expanse. And there were eight of them.

As I stared, the islands began to change. Their surfaces trembled, and from their centers massive volcanoes erupted skyward. Each volcano spewed not magma, but manifestations of power, Essence so dense it distorted the very air around it.

Recognition struck me like lightning. I could feel them. Their familiarity was undeniable.

These weren’t just islands. They were my Laws.

The first island roared with a towering volcano that spewed stormfire, arcs of lightning and flame twisting together in violent beauty.

Another erupted with pure elemental destruction, fire, ice, and earth colliding into chaotic bursts, my Minor Law of Elemental Convergence.

One by one, each island awakened, each volcano mirroring a Law I had comprehended. They pulsed in harmony with me, as though they had always been a part of my body, simply waiting for a vessel strong enough to house them.

But there was something else. The volcanoes did not settle. They kept trembling, each one shuddering as if straining against its own limits. From time to time, ripples spread across my inner world, shaking both the volcanoes and the glowing core at the center.

Then it happened.

One after another, the volcanoes that ringed my world began to stir in unison, their peaks glowing like molten hearts that had finally cracked open.

The pressure built until the first one erupted, releasing a blinding surge of radiant blue. The blast tore upward in a single violent column, shaking the very air around me.

And before I could process it, another volcano erupted. Then another. The sound was thunderous, like the roar of the earth itself.

Soon the entire horizon blazed with the same fierce light. Eight pillars of pure blue energy rose skyward, bursting from the peaks, flooding everything in their glow.

The sight stole my breath. It was as if my inner world itself had chosen to awaken, shedding its restraint and pouring its power freely.

Then, without warning, the fountains of light bent inward, as though pulled by some invisible hand. The radiant energy broke apart into countless blue particles, each one trembling with life, and they surged downward in a single direction.

It was like a great suction force had opened, drawing the power away.

I followed with wide eyes as the flood of particles rushed straight into the generator core through the newly-formed pathways. The connection was instant, undeniable.

My chest tightened as I watched it happen and realised the implication of this.

Before I could take another breath, my vision flickered. The image of the core shattered like glass, and I felt myself pulled back, dragged out of its depths as if some invisible hand had decided I’d seen enough.

I exhaled sharply, chest heaving. The scene I had just witnessed was burned into my mind, every detail refusing to fade. A laugh almost slipped out of me, a wild grin pushing against my face, but I clenched my jaw and forced it back down.

In front of me, the tear in space sealed itself slowly. It reminded me of an eye—watchful, cautious—closing shut only after making sure everything was in order.

[Talent Upgrade Finished]

[Synthesisation Complete]

[Good Luck :)]

I froze. My eyes narrowed. Had I read that right?

"Good luck?" I muttered under my breath, tilting my head. "Since when do you toss around blessings... with emojis?"

I scratched the back of my head, more confused than ever. No answer came. No hidden explanation. Only silence.

Another sigh slipped out of me, long and heavy. I finally glanced down at myself. My shirt had been shredded again, leaving me cross-legged and bare-chested like always after these so-called "upgrades."

But as far as I could tell, there was no change. My arms, my torso, my skin, it all looked the same.

Then the next line appeared.

[Ability Upgraded]

I blinked as the text reshaped itself.

[Apex Body – II (Passive) → Apex Body – Transcendent (Passive)]