The first thing Ethan Cole heard after being reborn was a woman screaming that the heavens were about to punish them.“The laws are gathering around the child! Your Majesty, we must move him before they descend!”Ethan struggled to open his eyes, but his eyelids felt impossibly heavy, and his body refused to respond. When he tried to speak, only a weak infant's cry escaped his throat.What the hell is happening?Moments earlier, he had been standing inside his sealed laboratory, studying a strand of silver energy suspended in a crystal container. Years of research had brought him to that breakthrough. If his theory was correct, the mysterious energy known as Si could change the fate of everyone born without the heavens' recognition.He had reached for the energy, and then unbearable pain had torn through his body. His instruments shattered, his consciousness faded, and the last thing he remembered was the terrifying sensation of something looking back at him from inside the silver str

“Get away from him!”Ethan's warning emerged as nothing more than a frightened infant's cry, yet Professor Nathaniel Hayes reacted as though he had understood every word. The elderly scholar stumbled backward, clutching his chest while the unfamiliar voice inside him released a chilling laugh.“Did you really believe you could hide the journal from me, Nathaniel?”Silver veins spread beneath Nathaniel's skin, branching from his chest toward his neck as his spectacles slipped from his face and shattered against the floor. Above the desk, the leather-bound journal floated in the air, its pages fluttering violently despite the absence of wind.Ethan recognized the energy immediately. It was Si, but unlike the controlled energy used in ordinary cultivation techniques, this strange force possessed a clear purpose. It was searching through Nathaniel's memories, tearing through decades of accumulated knowledge to locate something buried deep within his mind.It's looking for my research.Eth

“Destroy the entrance! Whatever is beneath this palace must never reach my sons!”Emperor William Cole's command shook the chamber, but before his guards could obey, a child's laughter echoed from beneath the floor. Ethan lay in Queen Victoria's arms, staring at the spot where Lord Marcus Vale had dissolved into silver particles while the minister's final words continued to haunt his thoughts.Ask your father what happened to the first prince.William had reacted to the name Thomas as though someone had plunged a blade into his chest. Now he stood motionless, his sword trembling in his hand as the black symbol beneath his sleeve spread toward his wrist.“Father,” Alexander said cautiously, “who was Thomas?”William turned toward his eldest son with a frightening expression.“You will not ask that question again.”Alexander's jaw tightened. “Someone tried to erase our younger brother's memories, and a dying man mentioned another prince whose existence we apparently know nothing about.

“Put the prince down, William!”Professor Nathaniel Hayes shouted as the black crystal in Ethan’s hand began to pulse. Silver light spread across the chamber floor, forming thin lines that crept toward Emperor William Cole’s boots.William tightened his hold on his son and stepped backward. “Everyone, stay away from him!”His warning came too late. The silver lines reached the emperor’s feet, and his remaining spiritual energy vanished with a sharp crack. William staggered, nearly dropping Ethan before Alexander caught his father’s arm.“What is that thing doing?” Alexander demanded.Nathaniel stared at the crystal with undisguised terror. “It is attempting to reconnect with the archive.”Ethan examined the object in his hand. Although the crystal was no larger than his palm, the symbols shifting beneath its surface resembled equations from his previous life. The markings rearranged themselves every few seconds, forming patterns he almost understood, but something about the final sequ

“Get away from him!”Alexander lunged toward Nathaniel just as the unfinished eye on Ethan’s arm opened wider, releasing a thin beam of silver light. His sword flashed through the darkness, aimed directly at the professor’s chest, but Nathaniel twisted aside with surprising speed. The blade struck the stone floor, scattering sparks across the archive.“Stop!” Emperor William commanded.Alexander ignored him and raised his sword again. “He activated something inside my brother! You expect me to stand here and watch?”Nathaniel clutched the silver device against his chest, his expression caught between fear and determination. “If you strike me, you might destroy the only thing preventing his consciousness from being overwritten.”“Then explain what you have done!”“I don't have time!”A sharp laugh interrupted their argument.Everyone turned toward Ethan, who lay in William’s arms with his tiny fingers curled around his father’s robe. Although his infant face remained unchanged, the bla