[Soul Link Completed]
The floating box in front of him offered no explanation.
Not that he had the time to ask for one.
The moment he finished reading the words, a sharp cracking sound echoed through the void around him.
It took him only a heartbeat to realize the source.
All around him, white streaks began to split the darkness—like glass fracturing across reality itself. The endless void he had been trapped in started to collapse.
Pinpricks of brilliant light emerged, piercing through the black. Slowly at first… then all at once, as if the darkness had finally lost its will to resist.
And then—
Everything vanished.
***
The first thing Light noticed was the weight.
Something warm… and unexpectedly soft rested against his chest, rising and falling with slow, steady breaths.
His eyes snapped open.
For a moment, confusion clouded his mind.
He was laid on the floor
The world around him was dark, lit only by pale silver moonlight streaming through a nearby window. Long beams stretched across the wooden floor of a modest inn room, carving deep shadows into its corners.
He blinked once.
Twice.
A dull ache throbbed behind his eyes.
Then the memories came rushing back.
The crimson-haired girl.
The strange connection.
And the endless flood of her memories that had pulled him under like a tide dragging a drowning man into the deep.
Years of another person's life had passed through him in what felt like mere moments.
A low groan escaped him as he raised a hand to his forehead.
That was when he felt movement against his chest.
He looked down—and froze.
She was asleep.
Or perhaps unconscious.
Crimson hair spilled across him in loose strands, darkened by the moonlight into deep shades of ruby and shadow. A few locks brushed lightly against his neck as she rested peacefully atop him, her head settled directly over his heart.
For a moment, he couldn't process what he was seeing.
Gone was the cold expression he had always associated with her.
Gone was the quiet, distant emptiness behind those dull ruby eyes.
Now she just looked…
Exhausted.
Fragile.
Moonlight traced the contours of her face, highlighting pale skin and faint shadows beneath her eyes. Every detail spoke of fatigue far deeper than sleep alone could fix.
He simply stared.
After everything he had seen inside her memories, seeing her like this felt unreal.
He knew things about her now that no one else did.
And that knowledge settled into his chest in a strange, unfamiliar way.
Sympathy.
Understanding.
Something he didn't yet have a name for.
The room remained still, broken only by the soft creak of wood and the distant hush of a sleeping town beyond the window.
Outside, the full moon hung high in the sky.
Judging by its position, it was well past midnight.
Neither of them knew how much time had passed inside that memory.
Carefully, he shifted.
The girl stirred immediately, letting out a faint murmur before instinctively pressing closer against him.
He paused.
"…Great," he muttered under his breath.
Despite himself, a small, reluctant smile tugged at his lips.
After everything she had put him through, she had the nerve to use him as a pillow.
The irony wasn't lost on him.
Still…
As he stared toward the moonlit window and listened to her steady breathing, he found that he didn't really mind.
For the first time since entering her memories, there was no pain.
No visions.
No overwhelming flood of emotion.
Just silence.
And the sleeping girl whose life no longer felt quite so distant.
*
But that peace wouldn't last.
His and her lives were about to change completely.
What he had once dismissed as coincidence at the auction house…
It wasn't a coincidence at all.
Someone far more powerful than anything he knew had been orchestrating events from the very beginning.
And now, he was caught in its center.
Still, as much as he wanted to let her rest, he knew this wasn't the time.
In a few short hours, they would have to return home.
And with them… even more questions than before.
Just as he shifted to stand, a strange warmth suddenly spread across his eyes.
The same sensation he always felt when practicing his blessing in the forest.
A translucent box appeared in his vision.
[Miracle Arts Activation Complete]
Do you wish to view your Arts?
[Yes] – [No]
"Woah," he thought.
He had no idea what this was.
But since it was offered, there was no reason to refuse.
He accepted.
A new window appeared.
But this time… it was different.
It wasn't information about someone else.
It was about him.
[Name: Twilight]
[Blessing: Soul Chains {New – Read Description}]
[Brilliance: Mediocre (0/1000)]
[Mana: 100/100]
[Title: ???]
[Miracle Arts: Soul Gaze {New} | Soul Bond {New} | Hand-to-Hand Combat {New}]
[???'s soul has been bound with your own. New Miracle Arts acquired.]
Light frowned.
The girl's name was still obscured.
But his blessing… Soul Chains… that part he understood. He had known it since his awakening.
What he hadn't been able to access before… was this.
He had been able to see this information with Captain Sangiff, but not his own.
Yet, now everything was open.
"Not only can I see my information…" he murmured, eyes widening slightly, "but there are descriptions too. Miracle Arts… I've never even heard of those."
Excitement flickered in his chest.
Things were finally starting to shape up.
He focused again.
More boxes unfolded.
[Blessing: Soul Chains]
[Brilliance: Celestial]
You seek true connection- not just in body, but in soul. You forge bonds deeper than blood. Their pain is your pain, their strength is your own. When they rise, you rise. When they fall, you bear their weight. You are not separate beings, but a single force, bound by will and unshaken by fate. To break you, they must break all of you.
[Unique Miracle: The Heavens recognizes you as one. You share your mana pool with your soul-bound]
[Miracle Restriction: True Connection comes with a price: You have no Freedom]
Silence.
Light stared at the words.
Then read them again.
And again.
His brow slowly furrowed deeper each time.
"Celestial…?" he whispered
The word meant nothing to him.
It sounded important. Grand. Almost divine.
But it might as well have been meaningless for him right now.
"The heavens recognize you as one…" he muttered.
"What heavens? The same ones that grant blessings?"
The stories from those old story tellers where shaping out to be more mere folktale
His eyes narrowed.
He squinted.
"Share your mana pool with your soul bound."
Silence.
"...My what?"
A long pause followed.
Light rubbed his temple.
"Is it talking about the red-haired girl? It must be."
His gaze drifted back upward.
"You are not separate beings, but a single force..."
"To break you, they must break all of you."
That part, at least, sounded powerful.
Maybe too powerful.
Unless it meant exactly what he feared.
Unless a wound to one meant a wound to both.
His expression darkened.
"Why is nothing ever straightforward?"
Then his eyes landed on the restriction.
And stopped.
"True Connection comes with a price: You have no Freedom."
"…Excuse me?"
His eye twitched.
"No freedom?"
Was he a slave now?
Could he not leave?
Could he not choose?
Was he bound to her now—permanently?
And could he even undo it if he wanted to?
There were no answers.
Only those four words.
'You have no Freedom'
A chill crept down his spine.
For the first time since the boxes appeared, unease settled in his stomach.
The Miracle was confusing.
The title was vague.
But the restriction…
That felt real.
Dangerously real.
"…Well."
He leaned back and rested his head on the wooden floor of the in
"I have absolutely no idea what any of this means."
"...Great."
A beat passed.
Then another.
Finally, despite all his confusion, a small grin tugged at the corner of his mouth.
"Still..."
His gaze settled on the words Soul Chains: Celestial.
Whatever "Celestial" meant.
Whatever freedom he had supposedly lost.
One thing was certain.
This wasn't normal.
And for someone who had lived his entire life being ordinary and near powerless, that alone was enough to make his heart beat a little faster.