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Chapter 400: A Friend Of Pain

They were so immersed in circulating their Aether that time passed in what felt like a second.

It was the exact same feeling that Emir had during his time at the Well Of Eternity, though his focus had been far more intense.

There was no doubt that the technique they had just begun to learn would stir chaos among the upper echelons of Earth\'s Celestial Hierarchy.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Their fathers and mothers demonstrated no such knowledge.

A few of them were much stronger than Emir, but they were stiff-too stiff.

The level of control was simply incomparable.

Those \'named\' knew that the best.

Especially Sofia.

As the training freak she was, she understood just how groundbreaking this all was.

Emir was combining the freedom of Spell Weavers with the increased output of the other specialists.

In layman\'s terms, he was getting the best of both worlds: flexibility and power.

It sounded too good to be true, but Emir had already demonstrated that the technique was more than just a promise, more than true.

And if they reached his level, they might even achieve the same, not needing to memorize more than a hundred sets of ability paths.

Such a dream seemed almost impossible to her...

If only she knew that Emir had started mastering that technique without even realizing how extraordinary it was.

The sheer thought might have made her already exhausted brain short-circuit, knocking her out on the spot.

The other \'named\' weren\'t any different, not even Quinn and Arthur.

In fact, it wouldn\'t be a lie to say that Arthur was the second most surprised person in the

room.

It wasn\'t because he was as smart as Sofia, no, not at all, it was due to his AIs.

They confirmed that such a technique was unheard of even to his father, Isidore, the head of the Ebonfyre family.

While it wouldn\'t matter much if Isidore and Emir fought directly-given that Isidore had reached a level of strength capable of demolishing Emir in an instant-when facing another Archon, even the smallest of detailed changes would become crucial.

In the higher ranks, every advantage and every difference, no matter how seemingly inconsequential, could tip the balance of power.

Elijah, who had such a teaching ingrained in his mind, had practiced alone, as he was the only first year with the Reaper Specialization.

Unfortunately for him, the second years weren\'t allowed to join Emir\'s class; only the first years attended.

He wouldn\'t have known any of them anyway.

Although Elijah interacted with the second years in their special Reaper classes, they rarely crossed paths outside those classes.

It was almost as if the Reapers only existed within those walls, embodying the very souls they took through Nether\'s River.

They were what could only be described as introverts, a result of the constant discrimination they faced.

Emir\'s little Reaper wasn\'t affected by such things, however.

He was aware of the technique beforehand, as Emir had mentioned it randomly a few times, always hinting at its importance but never explaining it in full.

Today, Elijah finally learned the name:

\'Path Optimization.\'

Not only had he grasped what the technique involved, but he also realized how foolish he had been for not pushing harder to learn about it sooner.

Regret plagued him, and he knew it wouldn\'t be long before the others in his family felt the

same.

This lesson made it clear that it was time for everyone else to be taught as well.

Hiro\'s wish was granted.

Of course, the teaching would be handled by Lyra, who was already familiar with the technique.

She had been the one to point out Emir\'s unique way of casting his abilities.

Ragnar also knew about it, and before this lesson, he was one of the only two that did.

Emir had dropped that knowledge bomb on him just yesterday while they were relaxing with Silent.

It was when he had recorded the video that the entire class was about to watch.

And yes, none of the students had left the classroom even when their professor had exited many minutes ago.

They were all engrossed in reading the Binding Contracts he had dropped on their laps, scrutinizing every detail for any loophole that could fuck them over.

Though still dazed, tired, and seconds away from being considered late for their next class, they kept at it, knowing that any control Emir exerted over them could turn their lives into a

disaster.

Those smart didn\'t bother much and skimmed through the contracts quickly before signing them, knowing that Emir couldn\'t reenact their nightmares as harming a student in such a way would go against his own binding contract.

But they didn\'t leave either, the curiosity of his \'evidence\' outweighing their responsibilities.

The video he sent them was a must-watch!

"I\'ll do it."

Elijah, being the top-ranker and the only one who hadn\'t received a binding contract, took it upon himself to connect his terminal to the holoscreen and play the video.

He didn\'t care about the penalty for being late to his next class; his curiosity to see this video was overwhelming.

Kuhm! Kuhm!

A hologram materialized, showing a coughing Ragnar who had just stepped back from his terminal-turned camera.

Once he stopped covering the entire scene, the same three machines were revealed, all positioned in front of a wooden shelf so large it extended off the edges of the screen.

Ragnar then could be seen silently gesturing for someone to proceed, and that was when Emir entered the frame, walking towards the machines with measured steps.

He first approached the Aether Control machine, plunging his hands in without hesitation.

It pulsed and the knob twitched.

"Grade E."

As Ragnar announced, it pulsed again and the knob moved.

"Grade D"

It happened for the third time.

"Grade C."

The same was true for the fourth.

"Grade B."

Fifth.

"Grade A."

Sixth.

"Grade S."

Seventh.

"Grade SS."

Eighth.

"Grade SS+."

It stopped.

Emir continued circulating his Aether, but nothing changed-the machine had reached its maximum capacity.

To everyone watching, it was clear that the machine couldn\'t even begin to measure his

control.

Not even once did his circulation stutter; it had remained smooth and unbroken throughout.

That meant that he received Grade SS+, not because it was the best grade he could get but because it was the best grade there was.

As the students struggled to grasp this, Emir moved on to the second machine to measure his

Aether purity.

After a brief moment, the machine beeped, displaying the result:

[Grade SS+]

Even though they had anticipated this outcome, the speed with which he achieved it was still

astonishing.

His fingers barely touched the chamber, grazing it, yet the orb inside immediately shifted to a

bright, almost blinding white.

This color was the opposite of what Elijah had achieved with his murky red darkness.

It didn\'t suit what they knew of his personality.

The purity was extraordinarily high-almost neutral, as if he had no element at all.

This was indeed accurate; Emir\'s primary aspect, Weaver\'s Grasp, allowed him to control

Aether in a nearly neutral state.

So their initial impressions weren\'t entirely off, only muddied.

What followed next only served to confuse them further.

Emir sat on a chair facing the recording terminal, his bored eyes staring right at them, the

students.

"Watch me."

He had said the same thing before to the parents of four students, but the reactions were drastically different.

While the Archons had felt a thrill at those eyes and two words, the students were paralyzed

with fear.

They felt as if their souls were being laid bare, as though he could read them like an open

book.

In a way, he could-something his \'past life\' had indeed accomplished. Under the weight of his terror, the students were transfixed, their eyes fixed on his.

Then, the electrodes atop the machine-like helmet began to flash green, signaling the start of

what promised to be a demonstration unlike any they had seen before.

"Grade E."

Seconds ticked by, and the machine moved to the next stage, as it received no mental

response.

The pain it inflicted was so insignificant that it almost went unnoticed by him.

"Grade D."

It did the same at Grade D, still not receiving a reaction.

"Grade C."

Nothing again.

"Grade B."

A grade Elijah had struggled so hard to achieve was barely an effort for their professor.

"Grade A."

Here, it finally seemed to pause for more than a second-or so they thought.

The machine, however, quickly adjusted and moved up to the next grade, the brief wait due to

its internal preparations.

"Grade S."

With that announcement finally came a change to Emir.

His mouth moved-was he about to scream?

No. He just... yawned.

The man was utterly bored.

As if acknowledging this, the machine skipped to the next grade for the seventh time.

"Grade S+,"

His mouth slowly closed as Ragnar announced the grade.

Emir then turned away from the camera, closing his blank eyes and forming a smile.

It was a smile that seemed to welcome a guest-a friend who was painfully familiar.

In that ensuing silence, a robotic voice resounded: "Damage exceeded recoverable threshold, shutting off now."