THE GENERAL'S DISGRACED HEIR-Chapter 349: TENSE INTRODUCTIONS

"I will tell her," Luna interjected, her melodic voice unusually gentle as she materialized fully beside them.

Yue looked up in surprise. "Luna, David specifically asked us not to—"

"The circumstances have changed." Luna's golden eyes held absolute certainty. "And I trust Elara."

That simple statement—from someone as naturally suspicious as Luna—carried significant weight. Yue subsided, deferring to Luna's closer bond with David.

Luna knelt gracefully beside Elara, her gaze never leaving David's illuminated form. "David has been experiencing dimensional fractures for some time now. His very existence in this reality has become unstable, causing his body to occasionally desynchronize from our world."

"What?" Elara's voice dropped to a shocked whisper. "How is that possible?"

"His origin is... unique," Luna continued carefully, revealing only what was necessary. "These fractures have been growing worse. The experiment today was an attempt to stabilize his condition before it became terminal."

"Terminal?" Elara repeated, the word falling from her lips like a stone. "He's been... dying?"

Luna nodded once, the gesture containing both confirmation and respect for Elara's understanding.

"All this time," Litty murmured, her gaze moving between David and her mother. "The strange fluctuations in his mana signature, the moments when he seemed to phase out of sync during combat training... you both knew?"

"Yes," Yue admitted, straightening her small shoulders. "He approached me privately to discuss dimensional theory, which I was highly piqued by as a scholar of the arts of transformation. We've been working on solutions for weeks, of course, privately as we exchanged letters, but the complexity of his condition exceeds even my understanding."

Elara sat back on her heels, the revelation washing over her in waves of retrospective clarity. Moments she had dismissed as exhaustion or distraction now revealed themselves as symptoms of something far more serious. The occasional winces of pain he tried to hide. The times he withdrew from company without explanation. His insistence on completing certain tasks personally, regardless of risk.

"Why didn't he tell me?" The question emerged as barely more than a whisper, yet filled with such raw hurt that everyone present felt its impact.

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"He tells no one unless absolutely necessary," Luna replied with simple honesty. "It is his way."

Fury flashed across Elara's face, temporarily displacing concern. "His way is to suffer in silence while those who—" She cut herself off, unwilling to complete the thought aloud. Those who care about him remain ignorant? Those who might have helped him are kept at arm's length?

The anger dissipated as quickly as it had formed, leaving behind something more vulnerable. Tears gleamed in Elara's eyes, though her training prevented them from falling. "Is there anything we can do?" she asked, turning to Yue with desperate hope. "Can you help him now?"

Yue shook her head slowly, regret evident in her ancient eyes. "Whatever has entered him is beyond anything I've encountered in centuries of research. The power signature exceeds even the artifacts we recovered from the Leviathan's Abyss. I have no frame of reference for intervention."

The admission—from someone of Yue's knowledge and experience—cast a pall of hopelessness over the group. David continued to pulse with inner light, each wave seeming stronger than the last, his body occasionally lifting slightly from the floor with the force of the energy coursing through him.

"It's divinity," a seductive feminine voice announced from behind them, breaking the heavy silence.

The effect was instantaneous. Elara whirled, palm already filling with concentrated flame. Litty adopted a defensive stance, positioning herself between the voice and her mother. Yue's hands moved to access concealed alchemical weapons within her robes.

Only Luna remained unmoved, a slight smile playing across her lips as she recognized the newcomers.

At the laboratory's threshold stood two figures—entities whose very presence altered the atmosphere of the room. The first was unmistakably feminine, with paper-white skin and long platinum hair that seemed to float on invisible currents. Her eyes, an unnatural crimson, regarded the group with predatory amusement. She wore what appeared to be a gossamer-thin white gown that revealed more than it concealed, the fabric occasionally becoming translucent enough to display the perfect form beneath.

Beside her loomed a significantly more imposing figure—tall and powerfully built, with skin the deep bronze of ancient statuary. Golden armor covered his torso and limbs, each piece inscribed with symbols that occasionally flared with inner light. His face might have been handsome if not for the perpetual sneer that twisted his features, conveying arrogance so profound it bordered on cosmic certainty.

As all eyes turned toward these intruders, David's bracelet—the deceptively simple band he always wore—began to pulse with light that matched the rhythm emanating from his body.

"Who are you?" Elara demanded, her flame growing hotter in her palm, its colour shifting from orange to white-hot blue. "How did you get in here?"

The bronze figure scoffed, his voice resonating with deeper harmonics than human vocal cords could produce. "As if your pathetic barriers could contain us. These weakling insects surrounding my master are hardly worth acknowledging."

"Your master?" Litty questioned, confusion temporarily overriding caution.

Luna rose gracefully to her feet, positioning herself between the newcomers and the still defensive group. "They are allies," she stated with quiet authority. "David's servants, like myself."

"Servants?" The platinum-haired woman's musical laugh carried sensual undertones that seemed inappropriate for the dire situation. "Some of us are more than mere servants, Luna dear." A blush spread across her pale features as she glanced at David's convulsing form, her expression hovering between devotion and obsession. "Some of us enjoy a... deeper connection."

Luna's golden eyes narrowed slightly but she otherwise ignored the provocation. "This is Vespera," she introduced, gesturing to the platinum-haired woman. "And this is Kaelith." She indicated the bronze figure with notably less warmth.

Luna's golden eyes narrowed as memories surged unbidden through the bond she shared with David. Images, names, and impossible histories flooded her mind in a breathless instant—two figures standing amidst carnage and myth, wrapped in light and shadow.

The Winter Devil… and the Hero of the Ages? she thought, the titles echoing with incredulous awe. Seriously, David? These are your contracts?

A snort of disbelief echoed in her head as Kaelith's voice cut in telepathically, clearly having caught her thoughts. "I heard that, Mutt. And I am Kaelith Solvrae, demigod of the western realms! Slayer of titans! Hero of the Thousand-Year Purge!"

"Half-demigod," Vespera interjected smoothly, her mental tone rich with dry amusement. "And don't forget, currently freeloading inside someone else's soul like an overdramatic houseguest."

"Temporary arrangement!" Kaelith snapped, bristling even in thought. "I do not serve weaklings. I… advise them. Strategically. Occasionally."

Luna rolled her eyes, barely suppressing a grin. Gods help me, they're both dramatic as hell.

Before she could reply—vocally or mentally—a massive surge of mana exploded from David's core. The ground trembled, and light—golden and white—burst from his body like a living sun. He was lifted several inches off the floor, the brilliance forcing everyone to shield their eyes.

"What's happening to him?" Elara demanded, fighting against the instinct to retreat from the overwhelming power emanating from David's form.

Kaelith's sneer transformed into something closer to jealous respect. "Enlightenment," he replied, crossing his arms over his broad chest. "The mortal receives divine blessing."

"Divine blessing?" Litty repeated incredulously. "It looks like he's being torn apart from the inside!"

"Transformation is rarely comfortable," Vespera commented with the casual indifference of one who had witnessed countless metamorphoses throughout immortal existence. "Especially when divinity attempts to integrate with mortal flesh."

The mana continued to build, pressure increasing in the laboratory until delicate instruments began to crack and shatter on nearby shelves. Books flipped open, their pages turning rapidly as if caught in a hurricane. The very air grew thick with power, making breathing difficult for everyone except the Aetenus and Hero Servant present.

Then, as abruptly as it had begun, the mana surge peaked and stabilized. David's body settled gently back to the floor, the violent convulsions ceasing as a new equilibrium established itself within him. The golden-white light receded, drawing inward until it was no longer visible through his skin.

For several agonizing seconds, he remained motionless. Then his eyes snapped open.

The transformation was immediately apparent. Where David's eyes had once been a normal, if intense, brown, they now displayed pupils darker than the void itself, their depths containing swirls of azure and white light that moved like living things. The effect was both beautiful and unsettling—eyes that were simultaneously human and something far beyond humanity.

Elara's breath caught audibly as those transformed eyes focused on her, recognition and something else—something profound and newly awakened—evident in their otherworldly depths.

"David?" she whispered, hope and fear mingling in her voice.

His lips curved into a smile that carried a hint of his old self, yet somehow more. "Elara," he said, his voice resonating with subtle harmonics that hadn't been present before. "It seems I have quite a bit of explaining to do."