Chapter 956: Instability
Chapter 956 – Instability
After that, the meal continued.
Not as loudly as before.
The laughter remained, but underneath it, something waited. A thread stretched across the table, tied from Ely’s quiet determination to Lux’s calculating silence.
The others felt it too.
Naomi ate with sharper composure.
Rava’s gaze kept drifting to Ely.
Mira spoke less, her dragon instincts clearly unhappy about unknown ancient artifacts and blood rituals.
Fiera’s teasing softened, tails moving slower behind her.
Yue finished her tea calmly, but her eyes had gone distant, already preparing chants and old memory bridges.
Gula, naturally, finished three desserts.
Stress apparently had flavor.
Eventually, the plates cleared.
Lyra and the servants moved in smooth formation, taking away what remained of the banquet. Which, considering Gula had been present, was a much smaller amount than originally prepared.
Lux quietly made a mental note to expand food budgets.
They moved to the living room.
The mansion’s atmosphere changed immediately.
The dining room had been warm, golden, full of food and perfume and candlelight. The living room now became something else. Furniture shifted aside under Lux’s Telekinesis. Rugs rolled back. Lights dimmed. Wards rose along the walls in faint dark-gold lines, forming silent layers of protection.
Lux stood at the center of the room with Ely.
The others moved outward.
Not too close.
Not too far.
Four points formed around the room like a ritual compass.
Sira stood at the east, arms crossed, prideful aura sharp and alert.
Gula stood at the west, holding a small plate of sweets because apparently ritual observation required snacks.
Yue stood at the north, calm and ancient, sleeves falling around her hands like moonlit water.
Lullaby stood at the south.
Well.
"Stood" was generous.
She leaned against a large pillow placed on the floor, eyes half-closed, but her presence was there. Sloth power, quiet and soft, spreading like a blanket over the room. Stabilizing. Slowing. Preventing sudden surges from becoming disasters.
Naomi, Rava, Mira, and Fiera remained farther back, outside the first ward circle, ready but not interfering. Each of them watched with different kinds of concern.
Lux lifted his hand.
The ring on his finger pulsed.
[Sovereign Event Horizon Ring: Activation Requested]
[Dominion Scale: Localized Interior Field]
[Combat Pressure: Disabled]
[Memory Containment: Enabled]
[External Interference Block: Enabled]
[Authority Distortion: Minimal]
"Activate."
The space around the center of the living room bent inward.
Not collapsing fully into the battlefield this time.
Lux did not need a war zone.
He needed containment.
The air turned darker, threaded with gold. A transparent circular boundary formed around him and Ely, about ten meters wide. Within it, the floor seemed deeper than it should, as if the mansion’s reality had gained layers beneath their feet.
Ely took a slow breath.
Lux looked at her. "Still fine?"
She nodded.
He extended one hand, and the ancient book appeared from his dimensional storage.
The room reacted.
The temperature dropped.
Not physically, maybe.
Emotionally.
Everyone felt the same old pressure, the weight of memory that did not want to be disturbed.
The book hovered for a moment, then Lux set it gently on the floor between himself and Ely.
He still did not touch it.
No need to give the cursed historical object unnecessary intimacy.
Lux glanced toward Yue. "Yue."
Yue nodded once.
She lifted her hands.
The room quieted.
Then she chanted.
Ancient Eastern Draconic flowed from her lips, soft and deep, elegant as a river passing beneath a mountain. The words curled through the room, touching the book, slipping into the faded cover, threading through the sealed pages.
The book reacted.
A tremor passed through its cover.
The pages opened.
Slowly.
First to the beginning.
Then past the origin song.
The same symbols glowed, rising faintly from the parchment but not fully leaving the page this time. They crawled like light along the edges, forming a spiral. The room filled with the faint echo of that ancient melody again.
Ely’s eyes widened.
Even knowing what to expect did not prepare someone to see an unreadable family relic breathe.
The pages turned.
One.
Two.
Three.
Then stopped.
Exactly where it had stopped before.
The sealed section.
The debt collection sequence.
Lux crouched slightly, studying it.
The pages trembled but would not move.
The room’s wards hummed.
Lux looked at Ely. "Your blood."
Ely swallowed.
Then nodded.
She lifted her hand.
Lux immediately produced a small sterile blade from storage, because of course he had one. CFOs prepared contracts. Demons prepared blood tools. Lux prepared both.
"Just a drop," he said.
Ely took the blade.
Her hand shook once.
Only once.
Then she cut the tip of her finger.
A small bead of red gathered there.
For a second, nothing happened.
Then the book noticed.
The pages snapped upward.
Not open.
Alert.
The symbols turned bright.
Too bright.
The room groaned.
Ely flinched as wind erupted from nowhere, circling her hair and dress. Pages thrashed wildly though no hand touched them. The ancient book shook as if furious, the cover pulsing with dark green-black light.
Gula’s eyes widened. "It’s hungry."
Lux’s eyes sharpened. "For what?"
"Recognition," Gula said, voice suddenly serious. "And something else. Old. Bitter."
The ground shook.
Not the mansion.
The ground inside the ring.
The localized dominion field buckled, black-gold lines bending under invisible force.
[Warning: Archive Seal Resisting Bloodline Contact]
[Pressure Spike Detected]
[Memory Field Instability]
[Containment Integrity: 82%]
Invisible power pressed down on everyone inside the room.
Yue’s chant deepened.
Lullaby’s sleepy eyes opened slightly. "Slow," she murmured.
A wave of Sloth authority spread across the room, soft but heavy, reducing the violent shaking just enough to keep it from breaking.
Lux stepped forward.
The pressure hit him hardest in the center.
His hair shifted in the wild wind. His shirt pulled against his frame. Dark-gold light burst around his hand.
[Telekinesis]
He pressed downward.
Not on the book itself.
On the force rising from it.
The air compressed.
The book screamed.
Not with sound.
With memory.
The pages thrashed harder, and the symbols on them warped into angry shapes.
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