CHAPTER 106: TEMPERED IN THUNDER

BOOM!

A second jagged bolt of deep, dark purple lightning plummeted from the cavern ceiling, smashing directly into Caius’s frame with shattering force. Before the sound could even echo through the subterranean estate, a third bolt followed instantly—thicker, darker, and crackling with a primordial fury that made the ancient stone pillars of the courtyard groan under the pressure.

Orven’s instincts screamed. The elder spatial dark elf raised his wooden staff, his mana flaring as he prepared to cast a tier-nine spatial isolation barrier around the boy, but Patriarch Vane caught his arm in an iron grip.

"Wait," Vane commanded, his crimson eyes fixed on the center of the storm. "Look at him."

The dark purple lightning didn't tear Caius apart or scorch his flesh. The moment the volatile, high-voltage energy touched his skin, his pitch-black obsidian core flared like a ravenous beast, pulling every crackling arc directly into his chest.

Deep within his Crown Core, the lightning acted like a master blacksmith's heavy hammer. It struck the swirling black liquid mana again and again, compressing the core's volume while burning away the last microscopic traces of raw impurities. The foreign lightning didn't just mix with his energy—it was conquered, digested, and forged, tempering his core into something infinitely denser, purer, and more lethal than before.

Then, as suddenly as it had erupted, the dark tempest vanished. The heavy, lightning-laden clouds dissipated into thin air, and total, suffocating silence returned to the subterranean courtyard.

Caius slowly opened his eyes and exhaled a long, thin breath of pale, ozone-scented vapor.

For a split second, his pale irises underwent a horrifying transformation—turning into absolute pools of liquid obsidian, swirling with microscopic, dark purple lightning arcs deep within his pupils. The terrifying gaze lingered for a single heartbeat before the lightning faded back into the dark depths of his eyes, returning him to his calm, unreadable appearance.

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He stood up, rolling his shoulders and stretching his limbs, feeling a surge of unimaginable power circulating through his meridians. But as he looked up, he froze.

Fifty paces away, three dark elves were staring at him in complete, frozen silence. Old Bones looked thoroughly shaken, clutching his daggers with white knuckles. Orven stood with his mouth slightly agape, his hands trembling against his staff. Even Patriarch Vane’s usually cold, calculating expression was taut with an extraordinary gravity.

Caius blinked, genuine confusion touching his face. "Is something wrong?"

He looked down at his feet—and immediately understood.

The massive, reinforced obsidian flags he had been sitting on in a lotus position were completely gone. In their place was a five-foot, smooth, shallow crater lined with a thick layer of dark, iridescent glass—the solid stone melted, compressed, and fused instantly by the terrifying heat of the purple lightning.

Patriarch Vane took a slow, heavy step forward, his dark cloak sweeping across the ruined floor. He stared into the glassy crater, then looked up toward the high cavern ceiling where the storm had manifested out of nothingness. His expression turned extraordinarily grim.

"This is going to be complicated," Vane said, his deep voice carrying a sharp, dangerous edge that cut through the silence.

Orven swallowed hard, his raspy voice trembling slightly as he found his speech. "My Lord... the atmospheric density, the dark purple mana, the sheer magnitude of that lightning strike... there is no way to conceal a phenomenon of this scale within the estate boundaries."

"No," Vane replied coldly, his crimson eyes fixing on Caius with an unreadable intensity. "Both Dual Sovereigns will have felt this and a spatial anomaly wrapped in this much death-mana will have drawn the gaze of both the Sun and Moon Palaces."

Vane turned toward Orven and Old Bones, his cloak snapping in the stale air as he issued immediate, decisive commands.

"Prepare the court wards and alert the inner guard," Patriarch Vane ordered, his voice echoing through the ruined courtyard like a death knell. "The Dual Sovereigns' envoys will be at our gates before nightfall."