Chapter 260
Without uttering a single word, she seemed to say that the channel of communication had been opened from her side.
Now, it was Theo's turn.
If there were questions, if there was confusion, if there was anything he wished to clarify from everything that had just happened and all that had transpired until now, this was the moment.
Aldraya, in her silence heavy with meaning, had passed the conversational baton, waiting patiently and passively to see what Theo would do with the space and opportunity she had given him.
"How about your condition? It's already been several days since that 'merging.'"
Uhhhh!
"Does anything feel off? Or is there something unsettling, like the RWIA system nesting beneath your consciousness?"
After giving Aldraya space and an opportunity to speak—an opening that instead turned into a demanding silence—Theo finally took the initiative to break the stillness.
He was no longer lying passively on the bed.
With a small sigh marking the transition from the world of sleep to the world of awareness, he began to move his body.
He gradually roused his tense form, first pushing himself into a seated position, then rising fully from the bed.
Theo then stretched, a simple yet important morning ritual meant to dispel the lingering stiffness of the night.
He slowly rolled his shoulders to the left, then to the right, followed by a flex of his spine that produced a soft popping of joints.
He raised both arms high overhead, fingers fully extended toward the unreachable ceiling, stretching every muscle from his fingertips down along his sides.
In that stretched posture, breathing deeply and with his gaze beginning to focus, he finally voiced the question that had been hanging in the air ever since Aldraya had sat silently at the edge of the bed.
His voice came out softer than the ear-splitting alarm from earlier, yet it carried clearly through the quiet room.
He asked about Aldraya's current condition.
The question was not mere small talk meant to salvage an awkward moment.
There was depth and genuine concern behind it.
Theo specifically highlighted the fact that several days had already passed since Aldraya's core essence had undergone its great merger with RWIA, a transformation that was existentially profound and extremely risky.
He wanted to know, beneath the flat mask and the intense behavior of seeking warmth, what Aldraya's inner state truly was.
Had the merger stabilized?
Were there side effects, confusion, or lingering waves of memory still disturbing her?
Had this newly born soul found its balance, or was it still adrift in the sea of a new identity?
The question was a bridge, Theo's attempt to return to his original role as observer and protector, trying to understand the complexity of the being before him—no longer fully an angel, no longer human, but something unique and still very fragile.
"I am stable. No—more precisely, I have surpassed the word stable."
Fiiih!
"My core essence has fully recovered, and since then its power has been increasing at an exponential rate that can no longer be calculated.
If I compare myself to who I was when facing King Xavier XVII—who at the time was already two tiers above me—the power I possess now has surged far beyond that, continuing to rise, continuing to evolve, without requiring conscious impetus."
Hhhh!
"What changes everything is the fact that I am now directly connected to RWIA.
I can now operate your Resolve, Will, Intent, and Ambition as a multipurpose apparatus—five levels beyond the Almighty loser of the Second Heavenly Betrayal."
Aldraya did not immediately answer Theo's question with words.
Instead, she fell silent, her clear eyes suddenly losing focus on the physical world around her.
Her gaze seemed to turn inward, as though piercing straight through Theo's skull and entering the ocean of his consciousness.
She concentrated all of her attention on the entity dwelling there—RWIA, the acronym for Resolve, Will, Intent, and Ambition.
That fundamental essence did not merely reside within Theo, but had also become both vessel and source of power for her own core essence, now fused with it.
Aldraya was directly inspecting the state of the fraction of her existence that had become part of that greater, paradoxical system.
Sensing Aldraya's deep concentration, Theo closed his eyes as well.
He allowed his consciousness to remain open, granting unobstructed access for the ongoing examination.
In the darkness behind his eyelids, he could feel the subtle presence of Aldraya's awareness probing, tracing, and evaluating every corner of the integrated core essence.
The process unfolded in complete silence, a metaphysical dialogue that could only be felt, not heard.
After a span of time that felt long, Aldraya finally opened her eyes again, almost simultaneously with Theo reopening his own to the real world.
With a gaze that now appeared sharper and more substantial, Aldraya delivered her assessment.
She stated that her core essence had not only fully recovered from its previous destruction and fusion, but that its condition far exceeded that.
A significant enhancement had occurred in every aspect, a qualitative leap beyond anything she had previously imagined or logically calculated.
She then added an even more startling evaluation.
She revealed that even the smallest fragment of Supreme Angel Authority she could now manifest, after merging with RWIA, surpassed the totality of the power she had once possessed.
This meant that the current Aldraya stood far above her former self—the Supreme Angel who had once fought a fierce battle against King Xavier XVII, the Human Hero.
That statement carried a striking contrast.
In the past, when Aldraya fought under normal conditions without the sword granted by Quil-Hasa, her clashes with Xavier XVII almost always ended in battles of equal force and equal danger.
Their base power levels differed by only two tiers, and what made those battles so difficult was the King's extraordinary adaptability.
Xavier XVII could observe, learn, and adjust himself mid-battle, eventually matching or even rivaling Aldraya's power at the time.
Now, with a core essence that had evolved and fused with RWIA, that gap had not merely widened—it had become a chasm.
The new Aldraya no longer existed within a range that adaptation alone could bridge.
She had ascended to an entirely different stratum.
And that increase was not something that had come to a halt.
By Aldraya's own admission, the process of evolution within her was still ongoing, a constant and unstoppable growth.
From day to day, even from moment to moment, fueled directly by the boundless and ever-flowing energy of RWIA, she continued to improve unconsciously.
Every breath, every heartbeat, every interaction with the world around her seemed to act as a catalyst for her refinement.
She surpassed her previous self at a staggering pace, like software receiving real-time updates, becoming more advanced and more powerful each time.
More astonishing still, Aldraya revealed a fact that even made Theo, as the owner of RWIA, pause to consider its implications.
Because her core essence had been fully accepted and integrated as part of RWIA, she had gained a very special access.
Aldraya could now access and utilize RWIA in the same manner Theo himself used it in battle.
To be continued…