OLD-WORLD EXTRA

Emir sat cross-legged in the center of his home's training room, the quiet hum of the space around him barely registering as he focused entirely on the task at hand.

Memorizing the Ability Path.

The ability he had purchased not more than ten minutes ago had cost him all his AUC-his entire admission gift and his first month's salary.

The price was steep for sure, but he didn't mind. He had no other use for the credits anyway.

In his hands, he held a sheet of paper, the lines etched across it forming a complex puzzle of the path his Aether needed to follow for this new ability.

It was the most complicated one he'd encountered so far, almost on another level, despite it being only first rank like the others.

Though he expected that, as it was a growth ability, it still surprised him a little.

The thought of optimizing and adjusting it seemed like a nightmare, but he was up for the challenge.

His mental fortitude wasn't just for show.

Emir continued to stare at the paper, carefully studying the lines and committing every twist and turn of the path to memory.

They crisscrossed and curved in ways that seemed almost random but were actually very precise.

Each line represented a path his Aether needed to follow, and any mistake could ruin the process, so he made sure that he had completely memorized it.

Once satisfied, he closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

'Here goes nothing...'

He started by gathering his Aether at a central point in his body, the Aetherial Vein, imagining this point as the starting point of the path on the paper.

Slowly, he began to move the Aether along the lines, upwards, trying to match his internal flow with the patterns on the page.

The first part contained simple curves along the left and right shoulders. He guided the Aether along them, making sure to keep it steady.

As he continued, the lines became increasingly more complex, with sharp turns and overlapping paths, veins one over the other.

He had to adjust his focus constantly, making sure the Aether didn't stray from the path at best, or crash into itself at worst, disabling him with a powerful backlash.

At one point, there was a section with tight loops.

Emir had to slow down and carefully navigate the Aether through these loops without letting it get tangled.

It felt like guiding a thread through a needle-one mistake and everything could unravel... or in this case, explode.

Time passed and he kept following the lines, eventually feeling the Aether around him beginning to respond, and soon enough, small, almost invincible threads materialized, dangling from his fingers.

Emir tried to move them, but they weren't smooth, often getting stuck together or moving too quickly and randomly crashing into the walls around him.

He had to make constant inner adjustments, gently pushing and guiding the Aether to follow the exact paths with barely any margin of error.

When he reached a section with multiple lines crossing each other, he had to be especially careful.

It was the hardest part for him, and he was sure that it was the section that caused him such trouble in controlling his ability.

Aether had to split and flow in different directions simultaneously and multiple times at that, which was quite tricky, to say the least.

But again, his mental fortitude wasn't just for show.

He took his time, making sure each path was correct.

Eventually, he nearly perfected the final part of the pattern, feeling a sense of relief as the Aether within him settled into place, officially accepting Author's Strings as his seventh ability.

'Hm...'

Emir relaxed for a moment and checked his work.

The Aether was flowing correctly along the lines, the margin of error was extremely low, but it was there.

He had gotten it to a point close to perfection, but that was the easy part.

The hard part was what came next, making that ninety-nine percent to a perfect hundred.

'Though, unlike the last ability, this one won't take me too long. My embodiment resonates perfectly with it.'

With that, he ended the training session, feeling accomplished.

The ability was officially unlocked!

"Author's Strings."

Emir played around with the ability for a while, a few minutes, and the time for the meeting had arrived.

He stopped, got up, and felt his Aether still moving within him.

Taking a deep breath, he let it settle before heading downstairs.

On the way to the dining room, he pulled up the {Aether} tab within the files of his Neural Network.

The updated data appeared, showing the new paths he had memorized.

[Ethereal Threader]

Emir's untrod path.

Celestial Essence: Weaver's Grasp.

Aspects: Weaver's Veil, Aerialis, Celestia's Hand.

1st-Ability: Aether Blast.

Level 2,3,4,5:?

2nd-Ability: Aetheric Blades.

Level 2,3,4,5:?

3rd-Ability: Aetheric Shield.

Level 2,3,4,5:?

4th-Ability: Aether Overdrive.

Level 2,3,4,5:?

5th-Ability: Flash Step.

Level 2,3,4,5: Winged Light.

6th-Ability: Death's Shadow. (Growth Type)

7th-Ability: Author's Strings. (Growth Type)

8th-Ability: Hydrobreath.

Level 2,3,4,5: Octus.

9th- Ability:?

Level 2,3,4,5:?

10th-Ability:?

Level 2,3,4,5:?

1st- Unique Ability: Gates of Eternity.

Level 2,3:?

Pinnacle:?

2nd-Unique Ability:?

Level 2,3:?

Pinnacle:?

Emir's path was slowly coming together.

He only needed two more abilities and a blessing.

His ninth ability was still a mystery, but it would certainly be about the soul; which he

planned to unlock after upgrading Hydrobreath to Octus.

His tenth ability was nearly chosen, Celestial Severance.

But that was a long way off, a really long way...

It would be when he reached a rank and sub-rank higher than Archon Emperor, the first sub-

rank of Class-Three.

So, nothing was set in stone.

Who knew? He might find something better before then.

After reviewing his progress a bit more, he found himself at the reinforced door to the dining

room, ready to join the others for the meeting.

It opened to welcome him, and he entered, seeing that almost all of his family was already

there. Laura, Lily, Lyra, Ragnar, Elijah, Jake, Emma, Kiera, Jack, Sarah, Evan, Hiro, Leo, Nathan, Jamal, Raymond, Logan, Morgiana, Mariane, and Evelyn.

The only one missing was Faye, who had been forced to sleep by Longshot half an hour

earlier.

His presence commanded their immediate attention, and the light chatter in the room died down as all twenty-one people turned their focus to him.

As he approached his seat, everyone except the three L's stood up out of respect, saluting him.

Nodding at them, he took his place at the head of the table, and they sat back down, waiting

for him to speak.

Every single one of them donned serious faces. Even Jamal.

They knew very well that this was no time for banter.

Death was upon them tomorrow.

With a calm, measured tone, Emir began:

"First, two of our people died in the Plaza. Hold a minute for them."

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After a minute of silence had passed, Emir leaned back in his chair, letting the slightly dim

lights above cast sharp shadows across his face.

His head rested on his right hand, which was propped up on the armrest, and he took a moment to observe the room, his gaze scanning each of his people's faces.

He was taking in their expressions, moods, and emotions, understanding how they were

feeling and doing without asking anything.

This wasn't something new; his Embodiment naturally made him better at detecting and unraveling emotions.

It was the very thing that made him a puppeteer.

He studied people, figured out their patterns, learned where he could make them flinch,

where he could hurt them... kill them.

Shaking his head, he stopped his thoughts from spiraling, grounding himself in the present.

"We'll talk about the First Major Disaster, but first there's something that you need to know... Aquila, please, come in."

The reinforced door opened with a low click, and Aquila of the Eagle stepped into the room,

his usual confident demeanor firmly in place.

He gave a slight nod of respect before meeting Emir's gaze.

"Thank you for waiting on me."

Emir dismissed his thanks with a wave of his left hand.

"It's fine. I already know a bit of what's happening. Had a few of my men down there, and

they saw constant skirmishes throughout the last two weeks." The Eagle's leader nodded his head.

"Right, as per our deal, I delivered Alex's head to Templar and they took the bait. There's

rising tension from both sides, little skirmishes throughout the slums. The Liberation Army believes our act it looks like. Though some of their groups still seem surprised by the sudden

tension between them and their neighboring faction."

As he paused for a moment, allowing his words to settle in their minds, Emir, showing no reaction, noticed shock on the faces of those in the room.

It was clear what they were thinking; the surprise was written all over them.

Their leader had never shared any of this.

Until now, they had only been instructed to send a few of their men to keep an eye on those

two factions. The rising tension between the two, which was weirdly limited to the underworld, had puzzled them, but now they understood-Emir had orchestrated it all.