The royal bedchamber had gone eerily quiet, filled only with the hush of snowfall tapping against the frost-etched glass and the steady rhythm of shallow breathing. Vastarael lay motionless beneath folds of blankets, the faintest wisp of steam curling from his bare shoulders. His skin was far too cold.
Adelasta stood at his right side, motionless. She said nothing but her clenched fists and trembling lips betrayed what her ice-kissed expression would not allow. Next to her, Elyonari's hands were folded before her. The Priestess of Mintherenia rarely showed concern but there was a faint crease in her brow as she leaned slightly forward. Behind them, Narisva leaned on a crystalline wall with arms crossed, biting the edge of her lip so hard it might've drawn blood.
"This bastard..."
Phaenora didn't speak either. She stood at the edge of the room. Her eyes were fixated on the man in the bed. Her usual playful spark had vanished. And then there was Asenane. Her eyes were not filled with panic but calculation. Her hands, however, twitched.
At the center of it all knelt Anamorsia, drenched from teleporting straight in from a snowfall. She was gently running a glowing palm over her brother's chest, her other hand brushing his temple. She let out a deep, worn sigh and shook her head.
"He really did it..."
Adelasta's voice cracked the silence. "Is he alright? His Body Reconstruction isn't working. I've already tried to trigger it thrice."
Anamorsia scoffed lightly. "Of course it won't work. This idiot went and used the Path of the Maiden's Current."
Every single woman in the room went still.
"The what?" Elyonari asked softly, frowning.
Anamorsia sat back on her heels, exhaling long and deep as she shifted her weight.
"It's not something any of you would've heard of. Not unless you know the secret records of Dynasty Richinaria. This is from my Mother."
They all leaned in.
"You all know my mother Lysameria is the most gifted Grandmaster swordswoman of the Second Generation. But during her travels, she got caught by one of the First Generation gods. That space god bastard trapped her in a spatial prison, hidden in an eternal dimension of silence and sky. The only way to get out was to use no energy, which was impossible for something that large. She was stuck there for three hundred days."
Even Narisva had gone quiet now.
"But instead of panicking, Mother meditated every hour of every day for three hundred long days. And in that silence, she found rhythm. She started humming randomly at first but then it began to shift into… structure. She vocalized in an ancient sea language we don't even speak anymore. It's a language older than the Second Generation itself."
Adelasta was confused. "But what does that have to do with—"
"She weaponized the music," Anamorsia interrupted. "She realized the tone, the pace and the structure, it all interacted with her weapon techniques. She bound the sound to a resonance, then to a strike. That's how she created her modified Second Plenituse Technique, Calm Gale. She used that technique, fused with her Divinity of Water, and sliced through the spatial prison."
"Wait," Phaenora confirmed, "so this 'Maiden's Current' is—"
"It's a secret path. Mother named it the Path of the Maiden's Current. It's a method of syncing a Divinity's elemental wavelength with a combat technique through pure resonance with no energy expenditure or stamina drain. Not even a drop of Divine Energy is used on the four techniques once this is mastered on average. One can use energy on it to unleash its full potential but they do nor really need to use energy but precision, skill and strength."
"That's broken," Narisva said.
"Yes," Anamorsia agreed. "But there are three conditions. One, it has to be vocalized and sung. Two, the user's Divinity, Minor or Major, must be elemental. And three, it must be done for exactly three hundred seconds."
The room went utterly silent. Then, Asenane murmured, "That explains it…"
Anamorsia nodded grimly. "Exactly. Veneri somehow managed to get Natalis and Denisia to sing the vocalization. And he matched his Time Divinity with the rhythm. That's why Asenane experienced time slowing down. And because the energy was redirected into resonance, his Body and Soul Reconstruction system didn't trigger afterward. It doesn't register what he did as energy loss or body destruction. It reads it as existence harmonization."
"But how did he even know the song?" Elyonari asked.
"He must've gotten it from her directly. As the heir to the Plenituse Techniques, he probably implanted the memory into the twins to get them to harmonize unconsciously. That's why their vocalization was perfectly timed."
Natalis and Denisia, now sitting nearby in worry, glanced at each other. They spoke together.
"We don't remember doing anything. We just remember him asking us to help him perform something special."
Anamorsia leaned back, grumbling. "Tch. Memory Implantation. He only ever uses that when he's trying to hide something. Veneri you idiot."
She looked down at her brother, her tone softening.
"He's fine. He pushed himself further than any Third Enlightenment Divine should. And damn it all, he scared the life out of everyone. If it wasn't for his Omniphage, he would have died. Literally."
There was a pause. Anamorsia's voice dropped lower as her gaze hardened.
"You all weren't there when Asenane teleported him to me. But the looks on your faces... I didn't even want to come near you. Even as a Sixth Enlightenment Divine, I was scared shitless."
Her hands curled into fists as she looked away.
"I was just out shopping with Shimmer. She was picking out candies. And then I get that call from Asenane, and I see my brother collapsed and pale like a dying star."
Phaenora clenched her jaw. "We were ready to go to war if he didn't wake up."
Elyonari folded her arms, whispering, "He always does this. Always giving more than he should."
Narisva cracked her knuckles. "I'm still going to punch him when he wakes up."
Asenane stood up and brushed a hand across Vastarael's forehead. "You reckless fool. If you do this again, I'll let Shimmer and Runner scold you themselves."
Adelasta finally sat down on the edge of the bed. Her gloved hand reached out to touch his. "Don't ever collapse in front of me again."
No one replied.