The young man sat by the window, sulking.
"Anthony was killed by the military," Jasper Vaughn could tell his younger brother was still hung up on that escaped captive. His voice carried a faint, almost imperceptible coldness, "Instead of wasting time on petty emotions, you'd better think about how to explain this to Mother, and how to answer to the two Elders."
"An explanation? Oh, please. When the main account gets scrapped, it deactivates itself—no need for a grand farewell. I sincerely hope they take this God-given opportunity to pop out a second kid."
Leo Vaughn gave a mocking smirk. "After all, as long as the main account's active, there's no chance of that second kid happening, is there?"
…
Having driven his older brother away, the young man looked away gloomily.
Vivienne Cross had run.
Or maybe she hadn't meant to run. Maybe he'd just lost her.....
Either possibility annoyed Leo.
She was his spoils of war ! His person !
She might've been rescued…
Or dead…
Of course, he couldn't have guessed that the person lingering in his mind was now lying unconscious in a medical bay, receiving emergency treatment.
"Miss Cross's instability index rose to 85% within half an hour, and she lost consciousness."
Major General Augustus stood outside the medical bay, face expressionless, listening to Adjutant William's report. Under the sterile light of the medical room, his blond hair gleamed faintly.
"Her mental tendrils show signs of being torn. Her mindscape is cracked, her condition extremely poor." William hesitated for two seconds, but still conveyed the doctor's original words, his voice heavy, "There's a high chance she was abused by the pirates."
The Polaris Pirates—those lawless bastards—were notorious for their brutality and ruthlessness.
Those degenerates…
Augustus's frown deepened. Vivienne's condition was far worse than he had anticipated.
A sentinel in an unstable, frenzied state was a ticking time bomb. Their senses would become excessively sharp, and their emotions would spiral out of control—without a guide's soothing, they could eventually lose all control and even hurt themselves or others.
Vivienne's case was clearly much more severe. She had already fallen into a coma. The next step would be progressive loss of normal bodily function… leading to death.
Augustus made a swift decision: "Assign a guide to assist her."
They weren't short of guides in the military—his meaning was clear: assign a high-level mental guide to ease her pain.
William replied, "Major General, Dr. Yang Ye has already gone in."
Yang Ye was a seasoned A-rank guide in the military and a recognized expert in mental soothing.
Just as he finished speaking, a man in a white lab coat and glasses pushed the door open.
"The patient's mindscape is behaving abnormally. It's shifting erratically and showing signs of rapid expansion," Ian Yale quickly explained.
"Possible signs of a second awakening. I request the deployment of an A+ rank or higher guide to assist her through the awakening phase."
He was only A-rank himself and wasn't fully confident that he could help her awaken successfully in her current state.
William was shocked: "A second awakening?"
Even Major General Augustus, who had seen countless cases, couldn't help the flash of surprise in his eyes.
Second awakening!
Everyone knew that an Evolver's mental power and combat strength could be improved through training, but "talent" not only defined where one started—it also limited how far they could go.
Some were born with S-rank mental power—so high at the start, others couldn't even hope to catch up.
Some had to risk their lives, fight and bleed, just to climb to A-rank.
But a second awakening was an exceedingly rare, heaven-defying opportunity.
An Evolver's body would undergo a complete transformation—their cells reactivated, their genes recoded, and their abilities would experience a qualitative leap.
However, this chance wasn't something everyone encountered. It required special conditions and timing. Some people never experienced it in their lifetime.
For others, it happened entirely by accident.
Ian Yale pushed up his glasses, his voice tinged with excitement: "Clearly, what we need to do now is everything we can to help this genetic lottery winner seize her destiny."
The mindscape—
The tangible manifestation of a sentinel or guide's spiritual world, reflecting their true mental state.
When a sentinel entered a dangerously unstable, frenzied state, a guide could use mental tendrils or spiritual projection to enter their mindscape, bring them back, and rebuild their connection to reality.
An endless ocean world—sometimes calm, sometimes raging.
A woman stood at the horizon of the mindscape's sea, tilting her head slightly. She heard the layered, majestic call of whales—low, drawn-out sounds weaving together with the crashing of waves, like an echo from ancient times.
It was everywhere.
It sounded mournful, almost like it was complaining about being trapped.
I can't help it either. She responded helplessly.
The woman stepped forward, walking across the ruins of memory. These broken, fragmented memory bubbles were the "past" that Leo Vaughn had once seen during a mental soothing session.
As she walked step by step through this scarred "territory," the scattered, warm fragments of memory faded away like glaciers melting under the sun.
Only she knew the truth.
They hadn't disappeared.
The tip of the iceberg above the ocean surface had only melted into water, merging with the vast, boundless sea.
And the ocean below, with the hidden mass of ice beneath—that was her true self.
The sum of her emotions and memories.
Vivienne sank underwater, hiding inside a massive metal cage. The surrounding currents gently wrapped around her.
Almost immediately after, the roars of beasts and howls of wolves crashed down like a hurricane, deafening. The howls were full of rage and pain.
"Subject 627!"
A booming mechanical voice echoed underwater, drilling into her eardrums.
"Subject 627!"
"Subject 627!"
It hurt.
It was unbearable.
She was dying.
Stop shouting.
She opened her mouth and screamed soundlessly.
The sea erupted in massive waves.
A whale's low-frequency call, close to infrasound, resounded once more.
A colossal tail swept up the waves, crashing toward the sky!
The storm intensified!
…
Until a light, playful piano melody began to echo— Notes danced underwater, the harmony beautiful and soothing. The beasts and monsters slowly faded away.
All the noise and anxiety melted away.
But the chaos hadn't truly ceased.
"Vivienne, why won't you come find me? You promised." A black-haired boy looked at her with grief and despair in his eyes. Those deep black pupils shimmered faintly red under the sunlight.
The next second, he suddenly morphed into a tall, sickly young man, expression cold and speechless.
…
A man with a smiling face but vicious, shadowed eyes whispered: "Darling, what's the point of going out to meet them? Oh, I know, I know you want treatment—but isn't it enough to have me by your side?"
…
As the S-rank guide's mental tendrils gently and patiently touched Vivienne's collapsing, fragile mindscape, waves of soothing power calmed her overstimulated senses—
Vivienne's frenzied mind slowly settled.
…
Medication, midnight escapes, quarrels with pirates—
The S-rank guide who had rushed to the ward after receiving orders gleaned fragments of Vivienne's past from scattered memories.
She was surprised. Based on past experience, in such a severely broken mental state, she would usually receive a flood of detailed memories from the patient.
But this time…
Were the patient's conditions too severe? Were the memories too fragmented?