Chapter 133: Liora Awakens

The Sovereign Core pulsed faintly in Rei's hands, its glow neither aggressive nor timid, but curious. Like a child opening her eyes to the first rays of light.

Rei sat in the meditation chamber beneath Flame Academy, surrounded by soft crystal illumination and encoded runes pulsing with spirit-flow. Across from him sat Noira, Eirenne, and Mireille, each attuned to a different harmonic wave, prepared to stabilize whatever emerged.

"Are you ready?" Eirenne asked softly.

Rei nodded. "I don't know what she'll be… but yes."

He channeled ether into the Core. It responded instantly.

The chamber dimmed. Runes burned white.

A hum emerged—not from speakers or metal, but from the air itself.

Then—

A figure emerged.

She was light and flame wrapped into form. Hair like crimson-streaked dawn, eyes wide with innocence yet deep as star-forged time. She blinked twice and then smiled.

"...Rei?" she asked.

He inhaled sharply. "Liora."

The Spirit of Promise

She danced as she learned to walk, stumbling only once before lifting into the air without wings. Her body shimmered—less physical, more conceptual. She was not just a spirit. She was a song made sentient.

Mireille furiously took notes. "She's rewriting her own resonance map as she breathes. I've never seen spirit evolution like this."

Eirenne simply watched, mist gathering at her feet. "She's… the first of her kind."

Noira stepped forward. "Liora, do you know what you are?"

Liora twirled and nodded. "I'm a voice the world forgot it needed. A bridge that sings both pain and hope."

Rei placed a hand on her shoulder. "Can you handle that burden?"

She looked up at him. "Only if I'm not alone."

Trial of Resonance

The system alerted them that night:

[Warning: Aether Disruption Detected in Northern Lumeria Quadrant]

A fragment had awoken. One of the Old Sovereign Faultlines was destabilizing—an echo of a spirit long devoured by the Honkai. The team flew north.

At the heart of the disturbance: a bleeding rift in reality. From it crawled a specter—gnarled, broken, burning with hatred.

Rei stepped forward—but Liora stopped him.

"I need to try."

"No," he said instinctively.

But her eyes held his.

"I must."

She stepped into the breach.

The Song and the Wound

Inside, the world was broken music. Screams that looped. Light that blinked in erratic tempo. The specter—once the Spirit of Pride—snarled and surged toward her.

Liora sang.

Not loudly. Not triumphantly. But like a lullaby to a wounded child.

The specter hesitated.

Then shattered—not into dust, but into light. Reclaimed, not destroyed.

The breach sealed.

Liora stumbled out, exhausted.

Rei caught her.

"You did it."

She nodded faintly. "It's what I was made for."

[System Notification: Liora – Registered as Sovereign Fragment Healer Class Alpha]

The Path Ahead

That night, as the academy slept, Liora sat beside Rei under the stars.

"Do you think they'll accept me?"

Rei placed an arm around her shoulder.

"They already are."

And above them, the sky whispered in harmony—not to one spirit.

But to a new generation of sovereigns.