The air in Elden's home carried the scent of metal dust and burnt herbs. Rows of glass vials lined the shelves, filled with faintly glowing liquids that shimmered in the dim light filtering through cracked panes. A low furnace pulsed in the corner not quite fire, not quite machine its glow moving like a heartbeat beneath the skin of the walls.
Rin opened his eyes slowly.
The morning light seemed to ripple before settling into focus. His breathing had deepened overnight; his pulse beat in strange rhythms that did not belong to the human body alone. Beneath his sleeve, the faint mark of the Sovereign Directive pulsed once, as though reminding him it was still there alive, watching.
[Stability threshold reached.][System recommends initiation of Dantina Body–Soul Dual Cultivation.]
The words floated soundlessly in the air before fading into his vision. Rin blinked. His throat felt dry.
"Dantina…" he murmured.
Even saying it out loud made the air in the room feel heavier. It wasn't a name from any academy record or the Weave's indexed archives. It was something older a word that seemed to hum with memory, as though the world itself remembered it and disapproved.
[Would you like to simulate the sequence before live execution?]
Rin hesitated. Then he whispered, "Yes."
The world folded in on itself. The workshop's light twisted inward, the air turned to static, and in the next instant, he stood in a weightless field of drifting code. It was not quite the Threadspace he had seen before this one was smaller, like a sealed fragment of the Weave carved out just for him.
Shapes floated before him, ghostly and geometric. The System spoke, its tone neutral yet ancient.
[Dantina Heart Formation requires concurrent refinement of body and soul. Your root structure is incomplete. Adjustments necessary.]
Lines of light rearranged themselves into a humanoid figure his own silhouette traced with countless meridians. The paths pulsed with faint light, spiraling into new directions the longer he watched. One stream glowed crimson for the flesh, another azure for the soul. Where they crossed, a faint golden circle formed at the center of the chest.
Rin felt each pulse echo faintly inside him a distant reflection of something awakening.
[Observe.]
The System projected holographic constructs of herbs and minerals. Each one hovered in front of him, labeled with symbols that his mind translated automatically: Iron leaf Lotus, Soul stem Resin, Kara Dust, Ethereal Ore, Vyr Ash. Their names carried a kind of resonance as if they were not just items but fragments of some forgotten language.
Rin reached to touch one. His fingers passed through the projection, scattering it like mist.
"They're just echoes," he murmured.
[Correct. Physical refinement demands tangible catalysts. Soul refinement requires harmonic stability. The sequence cannot proceed without both.]
The diagrams shifted again. The System overlaid a faint pulse of light across his simulated body, tracing new meridian paths that looped through his heart, spine, and mind-sea. The rhythm was hypnotic like watching his own being dissolve and rebuild in waves.
[Remember this flow.]
The words resonated directly inside his skull. He watched as the final pattern locked into place: two hearts beating as one the physical and the Dantina.
A faint warmth spread across his chest. Not pain, not fear but pressure, vast and coiled, like something waiting to awaken.
[Simulation complete. Begin real sequence when materials are acquired.]
The world fractured. The field of light shattered into motes, and the scent of metal and smoke returned. Rin was back in Elden's workshop, his breathing sharp, his body trembling slightly.
He glanced down at his hands faint trails of golden light still flickered beneath the skin before fading. The memory of the illusion lingered like afterimages behind his eyes.
"Materials…" he whispered. "I'll need them."
He turned toward Elden's shelves. Rows of jars glowed softly filled with preserved herbs, crystallized flux, powdered roots. Some names matched the ones from the simulation, but most did not. He hesitated. Elden had already done enough for him saving him from the crater, giving him shelter, keeping his secret. But this path was impossible to walk alone.
He took a breath and stepped into the hallway. The floor creaked softly under his feet. In the distance, faint metal clinks marked the sound of tools being arranged Elden was awake.
The older man was by his bench, tightening a valve on a broken flux channeler. The light from the furnace cast deep shadows across his lined face.
"You're up early," Elden said without looking up. "Didn't sleep well?"
Rin paused before answering. "I need… materials. For cultivation."
That made Elden stop. He turned, brow furrowed. "You're ready already?"
"The System says I am," Rin replied quietly.
At that, Elden's gaze sharpened. "The System," he repeated, like the word carried weight he didn't trust. "And what method is it pushing this time?"
Rin hesitated. "…Dantina."
The wrench slipped from Elden's hand and clattered to the floor.
"Dantina?" His voice was low now. "That word shouldn't exist in any current archive. Where did you"
"I saw it," Rin interrupted softly. "In a simulation. It felt… right. Like something meant for me."
Elden studied him for a long moment. The furnace light danced in his eyes reflecting calculation and worry both.
Finally, he sighed. "Show me what you need."
He led Rin to a locked cabinet at the far end of the room. With a few quick seals, the metal door hissed open, revealing trays of rare ingredients. He picked through them carefully, muttering old names as he worked.
"These are what I can spare," Elden said at last, placing several small containers on the table iron leaf dust, Kara resin, and a small shard of Ethereal Ore that glowed with an inner rhythm. "They'll help you form a foundation. But the rest…" He shook his head. "They're rare. Some extinct, some forbidden. The kind you don't find without drawing the wrong kind of attention."
Rin nodded. "I'll manage."
Elden gave him a long, heavy look. "You sound like someone who doesn't understand how dangerous that path is."
Rin didn't answer. He could still feel the hum of the Dantina pulse beneath his ribs, faint but alive a promise and a warning in one.
That evening, when the light had dimmed and the hum of the Weave outside softened, Rin began.
He sat cross-legged in the center of the room, the ingredients laid before him in perfect symmetry. The System projected faint blue rings around each, measuring their resonance.
[Commence Dantina sequence.]
As the command flashed, the room dimmed. Flux particles gathered around him, drawn by an invisible gravity. The herbs disintegrated into streams of color, merging into the air like dissolving constellations.
His body trembled as the first cycle began. Energy poured through his limbs, not smoothly but in waves raw, ancient, unshaped. He guided it as the System instructed, tracing the twin spirals through his meridians. His second heart invisible yet real pulsed faintly, drawing the energy in, refining it, returning it purer than before.
It was like forging the body from the inside out.
Outside the door, Sana stirred.
She had been pretending to read, but curiosity had kept her awake. Rin's door had been closed all night, but faint glimmers of gold slipped through the cracks, painting the hallway walls with shifting runes.
She stepped closer. The air around his room felt heavy, dense with static. She could hear faint whispers not words, but something between sound and thought.
Sana pressed a hand to the wood. It was warm.
"Rin…" she whispered.
Inside, Rin's awareness drifted between the physical and the digital. The System's voice guided him through each refinement pulse, hiding its deeper calculations beneath layers of calm instruction.
[Stabilization achieved. Second resonance forming.]
But there was something else, beneath the clinical tone a whisper too soft to belong to the System's normal registry.
[External monitoring detected.][Subject: Elden. Flagging observation.]
Rin didn't hear that part. The System buried the line before he could register it.
The light faded gradually. The herbs were gone, absorbed. The air stilled.
When Rin opened his eyes again, dawn was bleeding through the window. He felt drained, but different his senses clearer, his thoughts sharper. The Dantina pulse within him beat faintly in sync with the world.
Beyond the walls, the Weave seemed to hum in response, as though aware of something new stirring within its grid.
And in the workshop below, Elden looked up from his tools, his expression unreadable."That resonance…" he murmured to himself. "It's not from the Root. It's from beyond it."
He turned toward Rin's closed door the faint golden glow still fading and the old worry in his eyes deepened into something colder.