Sealed Heir Awakens; From Corpse to Conqueror

Chapter 7: Voices

Ethan woke to the smell of incense and the sound of water.

His eyes opened slowly, vision adjusting to soft lamplight. He lay on a bed more comfortable than anything he'd ever known, in a room that mixed traditional elegance with modern technology. Silk sheets. Wooden beams overhead carved with intricate patterns. And everywhere, the faint hum of astral energy.

He tried to sit up and immediately regretted it. Every muscle in his body protested, burning with the aftermath of pushing beyond his limits.

"Don't move." The voice was cold, clinical. "Your muscles tore themselves attempting to channel power your meridians aren't developed enough to handle. You're lucky you didn't cripple yourself permanently."

Ethan turned his head. The woman from the battle, Selene Arkwright sat in a chair beside his bed, reading something on a translucent screen that floated in the air before her. She didn't look at him.

"Where am I?" His voice came out as a croak.

"Hardy Estate, medical wing. You've been unconscious for eighteen hours." She waved her hand and the screen vanished. "Your mother wanted to stay with you, but I sent her away. She has a tendency toward... emotional excess."

"She's my mother. She was worried."

"Worry is useless. Action is what matters." Selene finally looked at him, and Ethan felt pinned by those ice-chip eyes. "You moved at Mach 1.2 without any training whatsoever. Do you understand how reckless that was?"

"I saved her life."

"You nearly killed yourself. There's a difference between bravery and stupidity."

Ethan pushed himself upright despite the pain, meeting her gaze. "Who are you to lecture me? You weren't there. You showed up after everyone was already dying."

Something flickered in Selene's expression. Respect, maybe. Or annoyance. "Fair point. We received intelligence about the attack too late. By the time I arrived, the battle was already decided."

"So you're from this... Academy?"

"The Xore Academy, yes. The premier institution for awakened individuals in the Western Territories. We train cultivators, mediate disputes between bloodlines, and occasionally intervene when someone like Kael decides to start a war." She stood, moving to the window. "Your mother petitioned us to take you as a student. I'm here to evaluate whether you're worth our time."

"And if I'm not?"

"Then you'll likely die within the month. Whitmore's forces will keep coming, and you don't have the skills to protect yourself." She turned back to him. "The Xore gives you power, but power without discipline is just waiting to explode. You need training. Structure. Control."

“She's not wrong,” the Echo murmured in Ethan's mind.

Ethan flinched. He'd almost forgotten about the voice.

Selene's eyes narrowed. "What was that? Your expression just changed."

"Nothing. I just... there's this voice. In my head. It's been there since I awakened."

Selene crossed the room in three swift steps, her hand reaching for his chest. "May I?"

"May you what."

Her fingers touched his sternum, and Ethan gasped. Energy flowed from her into him, probing, analyzing. It felt invasive, like someone rifling through his soul.

Her eyes widened. "Impossible. The Xore has retained consciousness?"

"You can hear it?"

"No, but I can sense its presence. An echo of the First Hardy, embedded in the artifact itself." She pulled her hand back, her expression troubled. "This changes everything."

"What do you mean?"

Selene paced, her mind clearly racing. "The Xore is legendary. Created by the founder of your bloodline three centuries ago as the ultimate cultivation tool. But all records indicated the consciousness within it faded after the First Hardy's death. If it's active again, if it can teach you directly..."

“Tell her nothing,” the Echo warned. “The Academy covets power. They'll try to control you through knowledge.”

But Ethan was tired of secrets. "It's been guiding me. Teaching me how to use my abilities."

"Has it taught you about the stages of cultivation?"

"No. Just... instincts. How to move faster. How to perceive time differently."

Selene stopped pacing. "Show me your Xore . Manifest it."

"I don't know how"

"Focus on your chest. Feel the energy there. Will it to become visible."

Ethan closed his eyes, reaching inward. The Xore pulsed with warmth, a second heart beating in rhythm with his own. He concentrated, and suddenly light bloomed beneath his skin, silver shot through with veins of deep blue, forming complex patterns that looked almost like circuitry.

Selene inhaled sharply. "Remarkable. Your Xore is already developing second-tier pathways. Most awakened don't achieve that level of integration for years."

"Is that good?"

"It's unprecedented." She moved closer, studying the light patterns. "The Echo is accelerating your development, compensating for your lack of training with instinctive knowledge. But that creates its own dangers."

"What kind of dangers?"

"Your body is developing faster than your mind. You have the power of a Stage Two Resonant, but the control of a newborn." Her expression hardened. "Tell me, when you saved your mother, did you choose to move that fast? Or did your body act on its own?"

Ethan hesitated. "I... I don't remember deciding. I just moved."

"Exactly. The Echo is controlling you, not the other way around. And if that continues, you'll become a puppet to an ancient consciousness that doesn't care about your survival, only its own agenda."

“She lies,” the Echo hissed. “I exist only to serve the Hardy bloodline.”

"Or maybe," Ethan said slowly, "it's trying to keep me alive long enough to learn properly."

Selene studied him for a long moment. "Perhaps. But regardless of the Echo's intentions, you need formal training. Which brings me to why I'm really here."

She produced a small crystal from her robes. It pulsed with soft white light.

"This is an Academy seal. If you accept it, you become my personal student. I will train you in the ways of the Xore Resonance, teach you to control your power, and protect you from Whitmore's forces."

"What's the catch?"

"The catch is that you'll belong to the Academy. Your loyalty will be to us first, your family second. You'll fight in our wars, serve our interests, and follow our rules without question."

"That sounds like slavery."

"That sounds like survival." Selene's eyes bored into his. "You're a target now, Ethan. The Hardy heir, possessed of the most powerful cultivation artifact in existence. Every faction in the awakened world will either try to control you or kill you. The Academy can offer protection."

"At what price?"

"Your freedom. Your future. Your choices." She held out the crystal. "But in exchange, you'll become something more than human. Something worthy of the power burning in your chest."

Ethan stared at the crystal. Everything in him screamed to refuse, to hold onto what little autonomy he had left. But the memory of people dying to protect him, of his mother fighting desperately to keep him alive, made the choice clear.

"If I accept, will you teach me to control the Echo?"

"Yes."

"And you'll help me go after the people who murdered me?"

Selene's expression didn't change. "Once you're strong enough not to die in the attempt, yes."

Ethan reached for the crystal.

The moment his fingers touched it, light exploded through his body. The crystal dissolved, flowing into his skin, seeking his Xore . The two energies met, clashed, then began to integrate.

Pain like lightning tore through every nerve. Ethan screamed.

“Fool!” the Echo roared. “She's binding you! Fight it!”

But it was too late. The Academy seal merged with his Xore , creating new pathways, new connections. Ethan felt his power surge, then constrict, channeled into patterns he didn't choose.

Selene's voice cut through the agony, "Welcome to the Xore Academy, Ethan Hardy. Your training begins now."

The world went white.

And in that whiteness, Ethan heard another voice, not the Echo, but something

older, vaster, speaking from within the seal itself.

"Host detected. Academy protocols initializing. Synchronization beginning."