Ivory took charge with her usual surgical precision.
"We can't have 'unauthorized users' witnessing this," she stated, her eyes flickering toward the unconscious Princess Lilith and Professor Vane.
Under Ivory's direction, the team carefully moved the two "sleeping" observers to one of the mansion's guest rooms. They laid them out on the plush beds, and Ivory personally double-checked the Gate Lock. It wasn't just a physical lock; it was a reinforced mana-seal that would keep them out even if they woke up early.
Once the hallway was clear, the group retreated back into the Training Hall.
"This is the only place strong enough," Ivory explained, her voice echoing against the reinforced walls.
"The Awakening Ritual pulls raw energy directly from the world's 'Source Code.' If your mental state glitches or if the manifestation is too powerful, the resulting mana-backlash could level a normal house. These walls are the only thing that can contain a potential explosion."
The tension in the training hall was so thick it felt like physical weight. Lustra bit her lip, her usual playful nature replaced by genuine concern. "Are we really doing this?" she whispered. "The strain of an Awakening can break a human's mind."
The spirits were all watching with intense focus. Kratos stood like a statue, his eyes narrowed, while Elysia peered out from behind Bellona, her small hands clasped together. In the corner, Smoke was desperately praying for Haruto to summon a "Level 1" slime or something weak—anything that would keep him from being the lowest-ranked member of the group.
"Logos, provide the anchor!" Ivory commanded.
Logos didn't hesitate. He dissolved into his Staff of Electrical Logic, flying straight into Ivory's hand. The moment her fingers gripped the staff, a massive, multi-layered magic circle erupted across the floor and walls. Ivory's eyes began to glow with a blinding, celestial blue light. Her voice dropped an octave, vibrating with the power of the Source Code.
"Decide! Now! The mana pressure is peaking!" she shouted, her voice echoing like thunder.
Haruto and Toya both pointed at each other instantly. "You first!" Haruto yelled.
"No way, Cap! I need to see how it's done first!" Toya shot back.
"Hurry!" Ivory's brow was beaded with sweat. "I can't hold the gate open forever!"
Haruto took a sharp breath. He looked at the legendary spirits standing around him—the raw power of Kratos, the elegance of Logos, even the loyalty of Smoke. He wanted that. He wanted a partner that belonged to him.
"Fine," Haruto muttered, his nervousness being swallowed by his gamer's instinct.
"I'm going in."
Haruto felt the static electricity in the air thick enough to taste. He adjusted his stance in the center of the circle, the violet light casting long, jagged shadows against the training hall walls.
"Haruto," Ivory said, her voice strained as she funneled mana into the array. "This isn't like leveling up a stat. You are literally opening a port in your consciousness for an external entity to occupy. The pain you feel is the 'System' checking your mental hardware."
Haruto gritted his teeth, feeling the first wave of that crushing pressure.
"Why now? Why not wait until I'm Level 50?"
Ivory's eyes flashed with a cold, blue intensity.
"Because in this world, you only get one. This ritual links your soul to a single partner. If you summon a weak spirit now, you are stuck with it forever. That is why most warriors wait decades—to ensure their 'vessel' is strong enough to attract a High-Rank spirit. But you... you don't have decades. You have 25 hours."
She stepped back, the magic circle beginning to hum with a frequency that made Haruto's teeth ache.
"If your brain reaches its limit, the ritual will force a manifestation of whatever matches that peak. If you break, the ritual fails and your potential for a spirit is deleted forever. Hold onto your sanity, Haruto. Force the System to give you something worth your pain."
Haruto looked at his trembling hands, then up at the goddesses and their legendary partners. He didn't want a "starter" spirit. He didn't want a tool. He wanted the kind of power that made the world's source code tremble.
"One shot," Haruto whispered, the black aura of the Void Reaper beginning to bleed into the purple ritual light. "Then I guess I'll just have to aim for the top."
Haruto stepped into the center of the geometric circle. Instantly, the blue light turned a violent, flickering purple as it reacted to his Void energy. The floor beneath him seemed to vanish, leaving him standing in a sea of data and raw mana.
Ivory looked at him, her face strained.
"Haruto, listen to me. If you feel like your brain is about to melt, or if the 'System' tries to overwrite your consciousness... Tell me immediately. And please... try not to die."
Haruto nodded, his jaw set. He closed his eyes, feeling the Void Reaper hum on his back. The silence in the room was absolute as every spirit held their breath.
The moment Ivory said, "Try not to die," Haruto's gamer confidence hit a massive lag spike. "Wait, what?! Die? For a spirit summon?!" he screamed internally. He wanted to alt-f4 out of there, but it was too late. The "Loading" screen of reality had already passed.
Ivory's voice cut through the roaring mana, sounding distorted and far away.
"Haruto! Because you already possess the Void Reaper, I can't summon a basic weapon! I have to pull a Direct Awakened Spirit from the deepest layer! Are you ready?!"
Haruto couldn't even form words. He just gave a frantic, desperate nod.
"No going back now. If I'm going to be a glitch, I might as well be the biggest one in the system!"
Suddenly, the world went pitch black. The training hall, the Goddesses, Toya—everything vanished. Haruto felt a rhythmic, deafening THUMP... THUMP... THUMP... inside his skull. It wasn't his heart; it felt like his actual brain was beating against his forehead.
Then, the physical sensations hit him like a tidal wave of corrupted data:
His body suddenly felt 1,000 times heavier. He felt like he was being crushed into the floor by an invisible hydraulic press.
Every square inch of his skin felt like it was being pierced by millions of red-hot needles. It was the sensation of raw mana trying to rewrite his nerve endings.
He could feel his very veins being pulled and sliced from the inside, as if the "Void" was trying to expand his capacity by force.
To the outside world, Haruto was just standing perfectly still with his eyes closed. But inside, he was screaming in a silent, airless void. He felt like he was melting into a puddle of raw code.
Suddenly, the crushing weight and the needles vanished. The sensory overload snapped like a broken wire, and Haruto found himself back on the floor of the training hall. The glowing blue magic circles flickered out, and the silence that followed was deafening.
Haruto collapsed to his knees, gasping for air, his lungs burning as if he'd been underwater for an hour. Ivory, Lustra, and Bellona immediately rushed to his side, their faces pale with worry.
"Haruto! Are you still with us? Can you hear me?" Ivory asked, her hands glowing with a faint stabilizing mana.
Haruto took a ragged breath, looking around the room with blurred vision. He looked at his hands, then at the empty space in front of him. Nothing. No spirit, no weapon, no new presence.
In the corner, Smoke felt a wave of relief so strong he almost cheered. "I knew it!" he thought, a smug grin spreading across his face. "His brain is probably too small to host a legendary spirit. Finally, I'm not the most pathetic one in the room!"
Ivory didn't even look back at him, but her voice echoed in Smoke's head like a whip. (Ivory's Telepathy): "Shut up, you weak-ranked shadow. You have no right to speak of capacity when you can barely hold your own form."
Haruto stood up shakily, his pride stinging more than his body.
"Did... did I fail? Where is it?" He reached back and manifested the Void Reaper, its black blade pulsing as usual, but there was no spirit attached to it.
"Maybe there was a problem in the ritual," Ivory muttered, her brow furrowed. "The mana pressure was there, but nothing crossed over."
"No," Haruto growled, his eyes hardening.
"I felt it. I felt something watching me. Ivory, do it again. I'm not leaving this circle until I get what I came for!"
But before Ivory could even respond, the temperature in the room plummeted to sub-zero.
The air in the center of the hall began to warp. It wasn't a blue magic circle this time—it was a Black Tornado of Raw Mana that erupted from the floor. It wasn't just wind; it was a localized hurricane of corrupted data that tore at the training mats and sent benches flying.
The ground began to shake violently, and a sound like a thousand screaming voices filled the air. It felt as if a portal to a forbidden dimension was being ripped open right in the middle of the mansion.
Kratos immediately stepped in front of Bellona, drawing one of his massive swords, while Logos shielded Ivory.
"This isn't an Awakening!" Logos shouted over the roar of the wind. "This is an Incursion! Something isn't being summoned—it's breaking through!"
From the center of the black tornado, a slender, pale hand reached out, gripping the very air as if it were solid glass. A figure slowly began to emerge, cloaked in a dress of shifting shadows and flickering violet code.