Engraved

The Flux Training Wing sat on the northern side of the compound, its interior reinforced with layers of dense alloys and Flux-insulating plating.

Asrel arrived to find a small crowd gathered in the hallway, a few chatting in hushed tones while others leaned against the wall or sat cross-legged near the chamber doors. A digital board displayed the occupancy status of each Flux chamber, with most of them showing red signs that says in use.

He stepped up to the reception desk, where a young clerk, barely older than him, sat behind a reinforced window, scrolling through a status monitor.

"Any available chambers?" Asrel asked.

The clerk didn't look up. "Let me check..."

A pause.

"You could wait at Chamber 13. The current occupant should be finishing soon," she said, finally meeting his gaze. "Probably five minutes or so."

"Thanks." He nodded, then turned away, hands slipping into his coat pockets as he made his way down the corridor.

Chamber 13 sat midway down the hallway, its smooth black door lit by a faint orange ring, signifying "near completion". The low thrum of energy pulsed from within, barely audible but distinct to those attuned to Flux.

Asrel stood across from it, leaning lightly against the wall.

It didn't take long before the door slid open with a soft hiss. The previous occupant stepped out.

Asrel stepped forward.

He entered the chamber, the reinforced door sealing behind him with a low thud. A small terminal beside the entrance lit up as he scanned his ID. A timer appeared on the screen. Session: 120 Minutes Remaining.

The interior of the Flux chamber was minimal and utilitarian, a 25-square-meter room lined with insulation plates and hexagonal energy panels. Faint lines of Flux shimmered along the walls, pulsing with a subtle rhythm that resonated through the floor.

Asrel took a moment to observe his surroundings.

The density of Flux here was vastly different from outside. He could feel it immediately, at least five times denser. It clung to the air, humming softly around him like a pressure field. His breath came easier, his limbs lighter, his thoughts clearer. It was the kind of environment that amplified a core's resonance, accelerating growth and refinement. Perfect for what he intended.

But Asrel wasn't just here to passively absorb Flux.

He was here to push further.

After discovering the theory behind "Extraction", the ability to draw out and embed Soul Marks, imprinting Blessings upon one's being , Asrel had an idea.

A dangerous, untested idea.

He wanted to embed the Flux into his soul directly, engraving it, just like how he embed extracted Blessings.

He closed his eyes and recalled the sensation of when his soul had previously manifested, that fleeting moment of spiritual awareness, when he entered a deeper layer of being during meditation or combat.

He inhaled.

Slowly, his focus sank inward.

He directed his attention toward the Chaos Core seated deep within his being. To use it as an anchor, a doorway. As his awareness pressed against it, it felt like peering into a bottomless chasm. Cold, weightless, unending.

Then he fell.

Time stretched. Or ceased. It was impossible to tell.

A drifting descent into silence, like dropping through the veil of reality into a darker mirror of the self.

And then...

Stillness.

When Asrel opened his eyes again, he wasn't in the physical world anymore. He had entered his soul state.

The world around him was featureless, a faint expanse of shimmering shadow and ambient light. His body had no weight here, only presence. His consciousness floated within the construct of his soul.

He took a few moments to steady himself, feeling the way his energy flowed, how the two cores pulsed. He reached out, spiritually, to touch the Flux Core, a compact node of energy within him, bright and stable.

Then, he tried something bold.

He guided the Flux energy toward the Chaos Core, with precision and care. Normally, this would have caused conflict as the volatile Chaos energy lashing out like wildfire, seeking to consume the structured current of Flux.

But Asrel was prepared.

He kept a constant mental tether on both energies, maintaining balance like threading a needle over a bed of embers.

As the Flux passed through the barrier zone and entered the influence of the Chaos Core…

That was the moment Asrel had been waiting for.

Within the soul state, the Flux energy now hovered near the core of his spiritual being. Asrel focused, drawing the energy inward, shaping it into a mark, a sigil of pure Flux. It pulsed with light, steady and clear.

With calm intent, he guided the mark toward his soul's center, aligning it with the same area where his Flux Core resided physically, just above the lower abdomen.

Then, he pushed.

The engraving began.

The mark fused into his soul, glowing with intense radiance. Runes spiraled outward from the point of contact, embedding themselves like circuits, like veins of structured light.

And then, silence.

A new sensation filled him.

Harmony.

For the first time since Chaos had entered his body, the two energies no longer stood at odds. The Chaos, once predatory and territorial, now pulsed quietly beside the Flux, coexisting instead of consuming.

Asrel opened his eyes in the real world.

The air around him shimmered faintly, reacting to his internal shift. His skin tingled. His breathing was smooth. There was no longer that subtle tension, that constant need to partition the two forces.

He felt integrated. Grounded and whole.

"So that's it…" he thought, a slow realization spreading through him. "The conflict is over."

His Chaos and Flux no longer rejected each other. They had begun to harmonize.

And with that, Asrel understood the step he had just taken.

"I can now proceed toward the Harmonized Core."

Asrel sat in silence, the Flux-rich atmosphere of the chamber gently pulsing around him like a living tide. With the remaining minutes of his session ticking down, he focused inward, drawing in as much Flux as possible, guiding the energy through his body.

He directed the gathered power to both of his cores.

Without conflict between them, Asrel is that the refining of Miasma into usable Flux will became smoother, far more efficient than before. What used to require strict mental control and forced separation now happened in a natural rhythm, like two rivers flowing toward the same sea.

He could feel it, the increased rate of absorption, the deeper saturation of power.

Then came the chime.

A soft, echoing ring filled the chamber, signaling the end of his allocated session.

Asrel exhaled and slowly stood, his breathing calm and his pulse steady. The sensation of the dense Flux around him lingered like mist on skin. He turned to the sealed chamber door and stepped toward it.

With a quiet hiss, the reinforced door slid open.

Standing just outside was a woman in a blue-and-silver uniform, posture straight, gaze fixed. Her silver hair was tied in a tight military knot, her expression composed and unreadable.

Asrel's eyes briefly scanned her uniform, noting the twin-chevron insignia on her shoulder.

A Captain.

And not just any officer, he recognized her from the outpost reports and briefings. Captain Jenna, leader of the Sanctuary Forces who will be overseeing the reclaimed mining zone.

Without hesitation, Asrel straightened and raised his hand in a formal salute.

"Ma'am," he said curtly, then stepped aside to allow her entry.

Jenna moved forward, but just as she passed him, she paused.

She turned.

Her silver eyes narrowed slightly as she regarded him, just curious and appraising.

Asrel stood still, calm eyes forward.

Something in the air around him... felt wrong.

Not visible, but it was there. A subtle ripple in the room's residual energy. Jenna tilted her head slightly, her expression unreadable, and then turned away once more, stepping fully into the chamber as the door sealed shut behind her.

Asrel blinked once, then continued on his way, never glancing back.

Inside the now-quiet chamber, Jenna stood still, staring ahead.

The feeling lingered.

A strange dissonance in her instincts, like standing near something misaligned with reality. The room looked normal. The air held no abnormal readings. Yet her intuition screamed otherwise.

Frowning slightly, Jenna lifted a gloved hand and brushed two fingers across her temple. Silver light shimmered behind her eyes.

She activated her Blessing, the power that earned her the title Eye of Truth.

Her vision shifted.

The room before her warped subtly in time, as if the world unraveled in reverse. The moments replayed before her like smoke reforming into shapes. She saw the chamber a few minutes earlier. She saw the door open. She saw Asrel walk in and sit cross-legged in the center.

She fast-forwarded through the entire session.

He never moved from his seated position. Never stood, never channeled external energy. From a surface view, it was the most uneventful Flux session she had ever reviewed.

And yet… something was missing.

Her Blessing told her the truth. But her instinct told her that truth was incomplete.

She canceled the vision, her silver eyes fading back to normal.

Still unsettled, Jenna let out a soft breath and spoke under her breath.

"…What are you hiding?"

But she didn't pursue the thought further.

Instead, she approached the center of the chamber and held up her ID card. The scanner blinked green and a new timer appeared on the wall.

Session: 180 Minutes Remaining.

Jenna closed her eyes, steadied her breath, and began her own training.

Whatever that strange sensation had been, whatever it was about Asrel that left that ripple behind, she would keep it to herself. For now.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

"Damn," Asrel muttered under his breath, boots echoing faintly against the metal flooring as he made his way back toward his quarters.

The memory still lingered, that brief but jarring moment when his gaze met Captain Jenna's outside the Flux chamber. He hadn't expected anything from a passing glance. But the instant their eyes locked, something deep inside him lurched.

The Chaos Core surged.

It was sudden. Instinctive and predatory.

He hadn't even consciously activated it, yet the energy within him had stirred violently, like a beast that had caught the scent of prey.

Asrel clenched his jaw at the memory.

He had managed to suppress it within seconds, smothering the spike of power before it fully manifested. But the impulse had been real, raw and dangerous.

He exhaled through his nose and muttered lowly, speaking not to anyone around him, but to the thing buried within him.

"Don't just react like that again."

The words were firm, almost like scolding a wild dog, yet beneath the irritation was something more, concern and wariness.

The Chaos had wanted something.

It had sensed Jenna's Blessing.

Even without reaching for it, Asrel knew exactly what the surge meant. The Chaos Core had recognized the power she carried and immediately sought to act, to extract it, to consume it, to claim her Blessing and make it part of him.

A deep, instinctual reflex baked into the nature of the Chaos.

That terrified him more than he wanted to admit.

He stopped walking for a moment and placed a hand over his chest, just above where the Chaos Core pulsed faintly beneath skin and muscle. The energy was quiet now and subdued. But he could still feel it, curled in the dark corners of his being..

The idea that it could act without his will, that it would stir just from proximity to power, meant he was still far from mastering it.

His progress in the Flux chamber had been a step forward, but moments like this were a sobering reminder:

Control is not the same as dominance.

Had Jenna sensed the fluctuation? Her eyes had lingered on him for a second longer than necessary. She hadn't said anything, but someone of her level, someone with a Blessing like hers… if she had noticed, and interpreted it as hostility...

He shook his head.

"Stupid. I need to be more careful."

A reaction like that in front of a seasoned Blessed, especially one several times stronger than him could've ended very badly. Even a hint of perceived threat would've drawn suspicion. And once suspicion started, questions would follow.

He resumed walking, slower now, more thoughtful.

He made a mental note. Not just of the incident itself, but of the lesson buried within it.

The Chaos within him wasn't just power, it was willful, driven by something he still didn't fully understand. If he didn't get ahead of it, didn't fully tame it, then it wasn't a weapon.

It was a liability.

By the time Asrel reached the entrance to his quarters, the tension had faded from his shoulders, but the reminder remained etched in his mind.

Mastery wasn't a luxury. It was survival.

And from this point on, he would treat it as such.