There was no wind, yet Ren Zian felt himself drifting upward.
The Astral God Space stretched out infinitely in every direction, a sky of darkness alive with starlight. Thousands, no, millions of radiant spheres shimmered in the void, floating like celestial lanterns across a sea of black and blue. Each star pulsed with its own rhythm, its own color, its own strange inner world.
Some burned with flame, wild and furious. Others shimmered in crystal light, cool and sharp. A few flickered with strange patterns - mirrors, beasts, weapons, winds. They spun slowly, inviting, daunting, alive.
Zian stood in awe. His feet touched nothing, yet he didn't fall. The stars moved slowly around him as if acknowledging his presence, as though the Astral God Space itself had taken note of his arrival.
He laughed softly, breathlessly. This place… it was real. More than real. He was in the First Celestial Layer.
And it was beautiful.
He stretched out his hand, and the energy responded. A soft aura surrounded him, lifting him higher into the open astral void. He soared, flying without wings, weaving between stars that glowed like breathing deities.
Some stars crackled with lightning. Others wept a soft rain of golden light. One glowed with a dull red throb, wrapped in the shadow of a coiling serpent. He passed it quickly.
"So these are Astral Veins," he whispered.
Each one of these celestial orbs was a seed of power, a bond waiting to be claimed.
He felt a pull from one, a small star humming gently with a silver-blue light, almost modest among its neighbors. A Candle Flame Vein? No, weaker. He drifted past. Another spun with a quiet metallic hum, its core shaped like a nail. Iron Thread Vein. Common, predictable.
Zian moved upward.
As he climbed higher, he noticed the presence of the veins became stronger.
Before long, he could see an almost translucent wall of energy in front of him - the wall to the Second Celestial Layer.
As he glanced around, he saw one vein that was emitting a strong presence.
"An ice type vein…this is probably one of the top tier veins of the First Celestial Layer…"
All types of shimmering veins pulsed around him, radiating different auras and attributes.
He willed himself upward.
The moment he crossed a certain invisible boundary, everything changed.
The pressure hit him like a tidal wave.
His flight slowed to a crawl. The energy around him turned thick, almost viscous. His limbs ached, his spirit groaned, and every breath felt heavy.
"Second Layer," he muttered, straining forward.
Here, the stars were fewer, but brighter. Sharper. They blazed with personality.
One orb blazed a pale white, the image of wings and storm clouds within. Windhawk Vein? Another pulsed black and green, coils of thorn and decay spiraling through its core. Poison Root Vein? A different vein almost radiated a dark howl as he neared it. Shadow Wolf Vein? The veins were countless.
There were flames here, but not like below. These fires roared within the stars, casting heat and pressure that made the First Layer seem like a child's lantern festival.
He marveled at them. Stars of war, stars of thought, stars of bloodlines sealed in silence.
Still, he steeled his resolve and rose.
The top of the Second Celestial Layer shimmered like a transparent ceiling, rippling with spiritual light. Beyond it, he saw only a hint of what lay above, and the second he neared it, the world screamed.
A crushing force slammed into him.
Zian cried out, his body locking in place. His bones felt like they were splintering. His vision blurred. The pressure wasn't just on his body, it pressed into his mind, his soul. It tried to force him down, back to where he "belonged."
You are not worthy.
He couldn't move. Couldn't breathe.
But then...
A light flared inside his chest.
The Echo Core responded.
Power surged through him. Cool, vast, and focused like a lance.
His body lit with translucent light. The pressure shattered.
Zian roared, ascending with a sonic boom that echoed across the stars. The barrier cracked and split as he pierced through it.
He collapsed upward, tumbling into the Third Celestial Layer.
Silence. Stillness.
Then came joy.
It welled up from deep inside him. Mad, brilliant, disbelieving. He laughed aloud, giddy and shaken, heart pounding. He'd done it. He'd reached the Third Layer on his first Awakening.
He floated there, soaking it in.
Around him were stars unlike anything below.
They weren't just glowing. They radiated. Power pulsed from them like tides, warping the space around them. Their colors were impossibly deep. Their auras felt ancient. Each star had weight, not just spiritual, but historical. Mythic.
One was shaped like a massive bell, tolling silently in its own gravity. Another shimmered with violet flame that danced backward in time. A third held the image of a vast winged creature curled into a crescent moon.
Zian hovered, stunned.
He guessed wildly.
Star-Eater Vein? No… maybe something older. Temporal Flame Vein? The bell… some kind of Time Resonance? He didn't know. He couldn't know.
And still, he rose.
The higher he floated, the more intense it became. The stars here did not call to him, they judged. He passed one that hissed with blood and iron. Another that radiated calm like an endless ocean.
He was going where no one else had gone, not on their first Awakening.
The Third Layer stretched wide around him. Endless. Waiting.
He kept climbing.
And the stars watched.