ShadowBound: The Need For Power-Chapter 629: I Need You Thoughts

Later that night, long after the academy had fallen quiet and the last echoes of the day’s chaos had faded into memory, the hours crept steadily past midnight. Only a few remained before the first faint light of dawn would begin to stain the horizon beyond the towering walls of the academy.

Inside one of the dormitory rooms, Liam lay stretched across his bed.

The room itself was dark, lit only faintly by the pale silver glow of moonlight filtering through the tall window beside the desk. Shadows rested peacefully across the wooden floor and the surrounding walls, giving the room a still, almost suspended atmosphere as though time itself had slowed to accommodate the exhaustion of its occupant.

Liam’s body remained unmoving beneath the covers.

The duel with Percy had drained him in ways few battles ever had. It had not merely been a contest of strength or skill, but a violent clash that had pushed every corner of his body, his myst channels, and even his core beyond their natural limits. The Ascension he had triggered during the fight had only worsened the toll. His muscles had burned, his mind had strained, and the synchronization process tearing through his core had nearly ripped his consciousness apart.

Now, the cost of all that effort had finally caught up with him.

For a long while, nothing happened.

Then, in the quiet darkness, Liam’s closed eyes twitched faintly beneath their lids.

A subtle shift passed across his expression, the smallest flicker of awareness returning to the surface of his mind. His breathing, which had remained slow and heavy in deep sleep, changed slightly as consciousness began clawing its way back through the fog of exhaustion.

Moments later, his eyelids lifted.

His red irises shimmered faintly in the dim light as they opened slowly, the color catching the pale glow of the moon and reflecting it back with a quiet intensity.

For several seconds, he did nothing but stare.

His gaze fixed itself on the ceiling above him while his mind struggled to catch up with the simple act of being awake. Everything felt distant and sluggish, as though his thoughts were wading through thick water just to form coherent conclusions.

The darkness of the room came into focus gradually.

The wooden beams overhead. The faint outline of the wardrobe. The shadowed edges of the desk across the room.

After a moment longer, recognition settled in.

He was in his dorm room.

And he was lying in his own bed.

Liam blinked slowly, his brow knitting faintly as fragments of memory from before he had lost consciousness began returning to him.

’Thought I’d be in the infirmary,’ he thought quietly.

The last moments of the duel surfaced in pieces. The Umbra Star detonating. The violent recoil of Myst draining from his core. The moment he had collapsed onto the stage floor.

Then there was Percy.

Even though Liam had technically passed out shortly after delivering his final words to him, his senses had not completely shut down at the time. Somewhere in the haze of fading consciousness, he distinctly remembered Percy speaking—calm, composed even after everything that had happened.

He had heard Percy call out to the Headmaster.

He had heard him ask for healers.

Which meant Liam should have been taken to the infirmary.

Yet here he was.

Back in his own bed.

Liam stared at the ceiling a moment longer before quietly exhaling through his nose.

’Strange.’

The thought lingered briefly before he dismissed it with mild indifference.

Whatever had happened between then and now clearly hadn’t been important enough to interrupt his recovery.

With a quiet sigh, Liam finally moved.

His muscles protested immediately.

A dull ache ran through his shoulders and spine as he forced himself to sit up, the lingering exhaustion from the duel and the Ascension still clinging stubbornly to his body. Slowly, he shifted upward until he was seated at the edge of the bed.

The moment his feet touched the floor, a wave of dizziness rolled through him.

The wooden planks beneath his feet seemed to tilt slightly, forcing him to brace a hand against the mattress as his vision blurred around the edges.

He lifted a hand and pinched the bridge of his nose with a tired grimace.

"Crap," he muttered under his breath.

His voice sounded rough from disuse.

"It’s just like last time."

The sensation was unmistakable.

Disorientation. Mental haze. A strange disconnect between his body and the surrounding world.

It was the exact same feeling he had experienced the first time he had undergone Ascension before the war.

"I feel almost... disoriented," he said quietly, more to himself than anyone else.

His head throbbed faintly as he exhaled again.

"What a pain."

The irritation in his voice was mild but genuine.

Still, dwelling on it wouldn’t help.

Liam blinked several times, trying to clear the lingering fog from his thoughts before reaching out toward the small wooden table beside his bed. His fingers brushed against its edge as he slowly pushed himself upright.

Standing proved to be slightly more difficult than expected.

A quiet groan slipped from him as his muscles protested again, but he forced himself to remain steady, keeping one hand on the table for balance.

After a moment, he reached forward and turned the small lantern resting on its surface.

A soft glow spread through the room as the lantern ignited, pushing the darkness back and filling the dorm with warm golden light.

The shift in illumination immediately revealed more of the room.

And with it, Liam became aware of something else.

A presence.

It was familiar.

Extremely familiar.

Normally, Liam would have noticed it instantly without thinking, but the strange clarity of his senses now made it feel sharper than usual—as though every detail of the surrounding Myst in the room had been amplified.

He could feel it.

Clearer than he normally did.

Almost unnaturally so.

"You shouldn’t be moving around just yet, you know."

The composed voice came from behind him, calm and unmistakable.

Mabel.

Liam glanced over his shoulder.

Standing near the far corner of the room was the familiar figure of his assigned Royal Corps guardian.

Mabel stood exactly as she always did—perfect posture, shoulders squared, her presence calm and unwavering. Her uniform remained pristine despite the late hour, the dark fabric of the Royal Corps attire fitting her form neatly while the half-mask covering the lower portion of her face concealed most of her expression.

Her sword rested sheathed against her back.

Even in the soft lantern light, Liam could clearly see her hazel-brown eyes watching him from behind the mask.

"Well," Liam said calmly, turning his gaze away again, "I happened to wake up."

He lowered himself back down onto the edge of the bed.

"So there’s no helping it."

A brief pause passed before he added casually,

"Mind turning on the lights?"

Almost immediately, the lanterns around the room brightened as additional ones ignited in response to Mabel’s Myst.

Liam flinched slightly as the sudden increase in brightness forced his eyes to adjust.

"Thanks," he muttered after a moment.

As his vision settled, the room became fully visible. Mabel stood exactly where she had been, her dark hair tied neatly in the usual ponytail.

"How long have I been out?" Liam asked.

"Almost sixteen hours," Mabel replied simply.

Her voice remained as composed as ever.

"But I believe you still require more rest than that," she continued. "Considering how far you pushed yourself during the duel."

Liam studied her quietly for a moment.

"Sixteen hours isn’t bad," he said after a while. "I thought I’d be unconscious for a day or two like before." He shrugged faintly. "Guess not."

Then, after a brief pause, he added; "By the way... mind using Myst Sense to tell me how I’m doing?"

Mabel’s brows furrowed slightly behind the mask.

"Why?" she asked calmly. "It isn’t as though you don’t know how to use Myst Sense yourself. So why ask me to check?"

Liam gave a small shrug. "Just ’cause."

His tone remained casual.

"Honestly, I just want your thoughts and opinions on what you might find." He leaned back slightly on the bed. "That’s all."

Then he tilted his head slightly.

"So... you mind?"

Mabel looked at him silently for a few seconds.

Then she replied.

"No," she said calmly. "I don’t."

At that, Mabel quietly activated Myst Sense, allowing her perception to shift beyond the limits of ordinary sight.

The room around her dulled slightly as the flow of Myst in the air sharpened within her awareness. Her focus settled entirely on Liam.

To normal eyes, he remained nothing more than a tired young man sitting at the edge of his bed. But through Myst Sense, the physical shell faded away, revealing the deeper structure beneath it.

She could see everything.

His Myst channels spread through his body like a network of luminous pathways, pulsing faintly with energy. The flow of Myst moving through them was steady, circulating in controlled currents rather than the chaotic turbulence she had expected after such violent overexertion. Deeper still, she could perceive the presence of his core—dense, powerful, and unmistakably changed.

And as the details settled into her perception, Mabel went still.

Her eyes widened slightly.

’By the stars...’ she thought.

The structure she was seeing made no sense.

’Is it even possible for a body to adapt this quickly to such a massive change?’

Only hours ago, Liam had crossed the threshold into the territory of a six-star mage, a leap that normally left most mages unstable for days, sometimes even weeks.

Yet what she was seeing now suggested something entirely different.

His Myst channels had already begun stabilizing.

The flow of energy through them was smoother than it had any right to be this soon, and his core had already started adjusting to the new capacity it now held.

To an outside observer, it would look as though he had already spent far longer acclimating to this level of power.

’He only just broke into six-star territory,’ she realized silently. ’And yet... it looks like he’s been there much longer.’