The Genius Mage Was Reincarnated Into A Swordsman Family-Chapter 207: Blackthorn’s Embrace

Captain Yenova studied the request form, her eyes narrowing slightly. Across her desk, Alex maintained perfect posture, his expression carefully composed into one of familial concern.

"A family matter," she repeated, setting the parchment down. "You're requesting three days' absence to visit Klaus at the main estate."

"Yes, Captain." Alex kept his tone formal despite addressing his aunt. Protocol demanded it within Éclair's walls.

"Interesting." Yenova leaned back in her chair. "Especially given that Fa-the partriach has expressly limited visitation to immediate family and authorized healers."

Alex had anticipated this. "I've sent a request directly to Grandfather. His response should arrive by midday."

This wasn't entirely untrue. He had sent a message to Roman—though not requesting permission to visit Klaus. Instead, he'd composed a formal notice expressing his concern and acknowledging his duty to remain with Éclair during this crisis. A perfect cover for his true destination.

Yenova's eyes hadn't left his face. Unlike many officers who found themselves commanding family members, she had never shown him favoritism. If anything, she had held him to higher standards.

"The exercises scheduled for these next days were designed specifically to test your leadership capabilities," she said finally. "Your absence will be noted by the other trainees."

"I understand, Captain. I wouldn't request this if it weren't important."

Something in his voice must have convinced her, for she sighed and reached for her seal. "Three days. No extensions. You'll make up the training upon your return."

"Thank you, Captain." Alex bowed formally.

As he turned to leave, Yenova added, "Alex." Her voice had softened slightly. "Whatever you're planning... be careful."

He paused at the door, surprised. "I don't understand."

"You've had that look before. The one that precedes reckless decisions." She smiled thinly. "You're not as inscrutable as you believe."

Alex forced a reassuring smile. "I'm simply visiting family, Aunt. Nothing more."

The lie tasted bitter, but necessity had long ago hardened him to such compromises.

*

*

*

The journey south took most of the day. Alex rode alone, having declined the escort typically assigned to direct line members traveling outside the capital. The sky remained overcast, casting the landscape in muted tones that matched his contemplative mood.

As the terrain grew rougher, he found himself reconsidering his decision. Not with doubt, precisely, but with a clinical assessment of risk versus reward. If Pride offered power that could match or exceed what Klaus had demonstrated at Northwatch, the risk was justified. If not...

He pushed the thought aside as the first black thorns appeared along the roadside—twisted, unnaturally dark growths that gave the forest its name. Legend claimed they had sprouted from the blood of an ancient deity slain in these lands, though scholars dismissed such tales as peasant superstition.

Alex knew better. The presence behind his eyes stirred as they approached, a warmth that spread through his consciousness like wine through water.

~~You've come.~~

"I said I would," Alex replied aloud, his voice sounding strangely muted in the heavy air.

~~Most wouldn't. Fear would have overcome ambition.~~

"I'm not most people."

Pride's amusement rippled through his mind. ~~Indeed not. That's why you were chosen.~~

The path ahead narrowed, forcing Alex to dismount and lead his horse by the reins. The black thorns grew denser here, their wicked points gleaming with an oily sheen despite the absence of sunlight. Occasionally, they seemed to shift, tracking his movement even when no wind disturbed the forest.

~~Leave the beast. It will go no further.~~

Alex tethered his horse to a gnarled tree at the edge of a small clearing. The animal's nervous whickering betrayed its discomfort, ears flattened against its skull as it sensed something beyond its comprehension.

"I'll return," he told the beast, though he wasn't entirely certain this was true.

The path beyond the clearing vanished entirely, forcing Alex to navigate through increasingly dense thickets of black thorns. They scraped against his clothing, occasionally drawing thin lines of blood across exposed skin. Each time, the thorns seemed to shiver with satisfaction.

~~Blood freely given,~~ Pride observed. ~~The first offering.~~

"You didn't mention offerings," Alex replied, his voice tight as a particularly vicious thorn sliced across his cheek.

~~All power requires sacrifice. Surely you know this.~~

He did, of course. The principle underpinned every magical system, every advancement in swordcraft. Energy converted, never created from nothing. Yet the casual manner in which Pride had withheld this detail troubled him.

The forest grew darker as he progressed, though whether from the deepening thickets or the approach of evening, Alex couldn't tell. Time itself seemed fluid here, stretching and compressing unpredictably. He might have been walking for hours or mere minutes.

Finally, the thorns parted to reveal a small valley dominated by a partially collapsed structure of black stone. The ruined temple bore no resemblance to any architectural style Alex recognized from his extensive education. Its angles seemed subtly wrong, its proportions disorienting to the human eye.

~~My sanctuary,~~ Pride's voice resonated with satisfaction. ~~One of the few places where the barrier between your world and mine grows sufficiently thin.~~

Alex approached cautiously. The temple had no obvious entrance, just a series of interconnected chambers exposed by the collapse of what might have once been a roof. As he drew closer, he noticed strange carvings along the remaining walls—symbols that hurt his eyes when he tried to focus on them directly.

~~They are not meant for mortal comprehension,~~ Pride explained. ~~Look away.~~

At the center of the largest chamber stood a simple pedestal carved from the same black stone as the rest of the structure. Atop it rested a small object that gleamed with a dull golden light—the only source of illumination in the gathering darkness.

"What is that?" Alex asked, though the pressure behind his eyes suggested Pride was already guiding him toward it.

~~A focus. A bridge. A key.~~ The voice seemed to come from both within his mind and from the object itself. ~~Take it.~~

Alex hesitated at the edge of the chamber. For the first time since entering the forest, a flicker of genuine fear threaded through his determination. Whatever lay on that pedestal represented a point of no return.

~~Hesitation is natural,~~ Pride soothed. ~~Even the worthy must pause before greatness. But remember what brought you here.~~

Images flooded Alex's mind: Klaus demonstrating extraordinary abilities at the youth training ground. Klaus becoming the youngest Swordmaster in continental history. Klaus surrounded by admirers after defeating Caidon Veynar. And finally, Klaus with midnight-black hair and abyssal eyes, power radiating from him as he confronted the Duke of Northwatch.

"Always in his shadow," Alex whispered, the familiar bitterness rising.

~~No more,~~ Pride promised. ~~Take what is offered, and you will cast a shadow of your own.~~

Alex stepped forward, crossing the final distance to the pedestal. The object revealed itself to be a simple golden circlet, unadorned save for a single black gem set in its front. Despite its apparent value, it looked almost disappointingly ordinary.

~~Appearances deceive. Its worth lies not in its form but in its function.~~

Before his resolve could waver, Alex reached out and grasped the circlet. Immediately, pain shot through his hand and up his arm—not the clean agony of a blade, but something deeper, as if the very atoms of his being were being rearranged.

He tried to release it but found his fingers locked around the metal. The pain intensified, spreading across his chest and into his head, where it concentrated behind his eyes with blinding intensity.

"What—" he gasped, dropping to his knees. "What is happening?"

~~True communion,~~ Pride answered, the voice now echoing from everywhere at once. ~~I told you there would be a price.~~

The world around Alex began to dissolve, the ruined temple bleeding away like watercolors in rain. In its place materialized a landscape of crystalline mountains under a golden sky—the same vision Pride had shown him the night before, but infinitely more detailed, more real.

And standing before him, a figure that defied description. It shifted between forms with liquid grace—sometimes appearing almost human, sometimes a being of pure golden light with multiple pairs of wings, sometimes something far more alien that hurt Alex's mind to perceive.

~~This is my true realm,~~ Pride's voice resonated from the figure. ~~And this is my true form—or as much of it as your mortal consciousness can process without shattering.~~

Alex found he could stand again, the pain subsiding to a persistent hum throughout his body. "Why have you brought me here?"

~~To offer a choice.~~ The figure gestured, and two pathways appeared, stretching across the crystalline landscape. ~~The left returns you to your world, unchanged but for the knowledge of what might have been. The right leads to power beyond mortal comprehension—but at a cost.~~

"What cost?" Alex asked, though he already knew the answer would be incomplete.

~~A portion of your autonomy. Your identity. Not possession, as Gluttony demands—I have no interest in wearing your skin like a borrowed cloak. But a merging. A partnership where the boundaries between us would... blur.~~

Alex studied the two paths. The left looked exactly like the forest path he had followed to reach the temple. The right shimmered with golden light, promising glory but obscuring its destination in brilliant haze.

~~Know this,~~ Pride continued.~~ Once chosen, neither path can be abandoned. If you take my offer, you will never be fully human again. If you reject it, you will never again be offered such power.~~

Alex thought of Klaus, lying unconscious in the Frost Chamber with his mind shattered across dimensions. Was that the inevitable fate of all Apostles? To be consumed by the very power they sought to wield?

But he also thought of Klaus at his moment of triumph, wielding power that could erase an entire city from existence. Power that even Roman Lionhart, the Ice Monarch himself, could not match.

"If I accept," he said carefully, "will I remain... myself? My core identity?"

~~More so than Gluttony's vessel,~~ Pride assured him. ~~I seek to elevate, not consume. Your ambition, your dedication to perfection—these qualities mirror my own. Why would I destroy what makes you a worthy vessel?~~

It was the answer Alex wanted to hear. Perhaps too perfectly so. Yet the alternative—returning to Éclair unchanged while Klaus might eventually recover with unprecedented power—was unthinkable.

"I accept your offer," he said, the words feeling strangely formal, like a vow.

~~Then approach.~~

Alex stepped onto the golden path. With each footfall, the crystalline ground resonated, producing harmonics that seemed to vibrate through his very being. As he neared the shifting figure, it extended what might have been a hand—or a wing, or a tendril of pure light—toward him.

~~The circlet is the anchor. Wear it.~~

Alex raised the golden circlet, which somehow still remained in his grasp despite the transition between realms. With a deep breath, he placed it upon his head.

The world exploded into golden light.

Knowledge cascaded through his mind—centuries of accumulated wisdom, strategies beyond human conception, power that flowed like liquid fire through his veins. He saw the patterns of reality itself, the structures underlying creation, the threads connecting all things.

Simultaneously, he felt Pride's consciousness entwining with his own—not violently, but with deliberate precision, like two streams merging into a river. Memories, emotions, ambitions all flowing together until the boundary between vessel and Arkdieu began to blur.

In that moment of communion, Alex glimpsed Pride's true nature—ancient beyond human reckoning, powerful beyond mortal comprehension, and utterly, fundamentally alien in its conception of existence.

Fear lanced through him, a desperate instinct for self-preservation. He tried to pull back, to maintain the boundaries of his identity against this ocean of otherness.

~~Do not resist, Pride urged. Embrace. Accept. Become.~~

"I won't... lose myself," Alex gasped, fighting to maintain his core identity even as Pride's essence continued to merge with his own.

~~You won't lose. You'll transform.~~

The distinction seemed meaningless as the merger continued, but Alex clung to it nonetheless. He focused on his most fundamental traits—his determination, his discipline, his pride in the Lionhart name. These would be his anchors in this sea of transformation.

Gradually, the golden light receded, the cascade of knowledge settling into organized patterns within his mind. The merger stabilized, leaving Alex... changed, but still recognizably himself.

He opened his eyes to find himself back in the ruined temple, now illuminated by moonlight. Night had fallen while he communed with Pride. The golden circlet rested upon his brow, its black gem now pulsing with a steady golden light.

Alex rose to his feet, marveling at the new awareness that flowed through him. He could sense the energy patterns in the air, see the faint auras emanating from the black thorns surrounding the temple. His vision extended beyond normal human range, perceiving spectrums previously invisible.

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~~We are one now,~~ Pride's voice observed from within his mind. ~~Not fully merged, but inextricably connected.~~

Alex raised his hand, watching as golden light danced across his fingertips at the merest thought. "What am I now?"

~~More than human. Less than divine. The perfect vessel.~~

He sensed that Pride was being deliberately vague, that the true extent of the transformation would reveal itself gradually. But for now, the power flowing through him was intoxicating, worth whatever price he had paid.

~~Return to your world,~~ Pride instructed.~~ Learn to master these new abilities. When the time comes, you will face Gluttony's vessel as an equal—or better.~~

Alex nodded, his new senses already mapping the path back through the forest. As he turned to leave the ruined temple, he caught a glimpse of his reflection in a pool of rainwater collected among the stones.

His eyes glowed with golden light, reminiscent of the black abyssal void Alexandra had described in Klaus. But unlike Klaus's complete transformation, Alex remained recognizably himself—perhaps Pride's promise of partnership rather than possession had been genuine.

Or perhaps that was merely what Pride wanted him to believe.

The thought surfaced and was quickly submerged beneath waves of power and possibility. Alex adjusted the circlet upon his brow, feeling it warm against his skin as it seemed to meld with his flesh.

The die was cast. Whatever he had become, whatever price remained to be paid, there was no returning to what he had been before.

As he strode from the temple, the black thorns parted before him, bowing like subjects before a king...