Strongest Incubus System

The next three days were strangely normal.

Damon distrusted all of them.

On the first, he spent most of the morning between the infirmary and the inner courtyard, being prevented by Ester from doing anything she classified as ”unnecessarily stupid.”

The definition was broad.

Very broad.

”I’m just walking.”

”Too fast.”

”That’s forbidden now?”

”For you, temporarily.”

Damon slowed down.

”Medical authoritarianism.”

”Keep complaining. Deep breathing helps your ribs.”

He considered answering, then realized he had probably fallen into exactly what Ester wanted.

So he stayed silent.

She smiled.

”You’re learning.”

”Don’t start.”

On the second day, he was finally given permission to train.

Train was a generous word.

Ester allowed slow sword movements, without impact, sudden acceleration, or anything that required strong twisting of his torso.

Damon stood in the center of the courtyard holding his sword as if he had only just learned what a blade was.

Jian Yue was sitting near the wall.

Watching.

He performed a simple sequence.

Stopped.

”You’re judging me.”

”Yes.”

”You can leave.”

”No.”

Damon performed another movement.

Jian Yue tilted her head.

”Your shoulder dropped.”

”Because it’s injured.”

”Then the movement is wrong.”

”I’m starting to hate training with spectators.”

”You were judging me three days ago.”

”That was different.”

”Why?”

”I was right.”

She smiled.

Damon returned to the starting position.

During the third sequence, something changed.

It wasn’t pain.

Nor was it a sudden increase in strength.

His sword simply finished the movement in a different position from the one he had planned.

Damon stopped.

Jian Yue noticed too.

”What happened?”

He looked at his own hand.

”Nothing.”

She remained silent.

Damon corrected himself before Ester appeared from somewhere purely to scold him.

”Something.”

Jian Yue stood.

”Pain?”

”No.”

”Lost strength?”

”No.”

He repeated the movement.

More slowly this time.

The slash began as a simple horizontal trajectory.

Halfway through the movement, however, his wrist made a small, almost involuntary correction, reducing how much he needed to rotate his shoulder.

Damon repeated it.

The same thing happened.

Jian Yue approached.

”You’re compensating for the injury.”

”Normally, I’d notice.”

”Your body noticed.”

Damon went still.

The sentence immediately brought his conversation with Eir back to mind.

Food.

Environment.

Injuries.

Energy.

Choices.

”Call Ester.”

Jian Yue raised an eyebrow.

”You asked for her?”

”Don’t turn this into a historical event.”

She went.

Ester arrived accompanied by Aria, which Damon considered unnecessary.

”Why did she come?”

Aria was already opening her notebook.

”Jian Yue said your body did something strange.”

”My body has been doing strange things for years.”

”This one sounds new.”

Ester held out her hand.

”Sword.”

Damon handed it over.

”Do it again without the sword.”

He performed the same arm rotation.

Nothing.

Ester returned the sword.

”Now with it.”

Damon repeated the movement.

Halfway through, his wrist corrected the trajectory again.

Ester watched his shoulder.

”You aren’t compensating only with your arm.”

”I knew that.”

”You didn’t.”

”I suspected it.”

Aria moved closer.

”What’s happening?”

Ester placed two fingers against the region below Damon’s heart, then pressed another point near the side of his abdomen.

”Again.”

He did it.

This time, Ester felt it.

The small ancestral connection beneath his heart activated for an instant and sent a response to the second one in his abdominal region.

No new energy appeared.

No channel opened.

His body merely redistributed the effort.

Aurelia appeared in the courtyard shortly afterward, drawn by the growing number of people gathering around Damon.

He looked at all of them.

”This stopped being training and became an exhibition.”

Aurelia approached.

”Do it again.”

”Naturally.”

Damon repeated the movement.

She observed his posture, then looked toward Ester.

”Functional compatibility.”

”That’s what I thought.”

Damon lowered the sword.

”Translation.”

Aurelia pointed toward his shoulder.

”Your usual pattern requires a rotation that currently produces pain and instability. Your ancestral structure identified another motor pathway that uses your shoulder less.”

”So it’s teaching me how to fight.”

”No.”

”It looked very much like that.”

”It’s maintaining compatibility between two systems under a temporary limitation.”

Ester added:

”Your body wants to complete the movement. Your shoulder can’t do it the usual way. So another structure finds a solution that doesn’t strain the injury.”

Damon looked at the sword.

”That’s useful.”

Aria wrote something down.

”It also confirms what Eir said.”

”Don’t turn this into an experiment.”

”I’m recording what happened.”

”That’s how experiments start.”

Aurelia looked at him.

”Then we stop.”

Damon raised his eyes.

She spoke with complete naturalness.

”We’ve already observed the response. We don’t need to reproduce it fifty times.”

Aria hesitated.

Then closed the notebook.

Damon looked at the two of them.

”That was surprisingly healthy.”

Ester took the sword from his hand.

”And training is over.”

”I knew there was a trap.”

”Your body found a way to avoid pain. That doesn’t mean you should spend the next two hours searching for more.”

Damon surrendered to defeat.

That afternoon, a new message arrived from Varos.

This time there was no silent center.

No trapped patient.

No facility trying to ignore orders.

Aria gathered everyone in the main room anyway.

Damon entered carrying a mug.

”If this is another crisis, I want it officially recorded that I started drinking beforehand.”

”It’s a report,” Aria replied.

”Better.”

Varos had reached the Order’s headquarters.

He had not been arrested.

He also had not been received as a commander in full authority.

The provisional council had formally suspended his field authority while Vermillion was investigated, but it had accepted the evidence he presented and ordered the temporary deactivation of all hidden functions within the authentication marks.

”Temporary?” Jian Li asked.

Aria continued reading.

”Until a complete technical audit is finished.”

Damon sat down.

”That’s more than I expected.”

Aurelia agreed.

”Especially because it requires admitting that their own leadership didn’t know about functions installed in their agents.”

”Or admitting that they claim they didn’t know,” Chen Mo commented.

”That too.”

The report continued.

Serik would remain detained in Vermillion.

Mereth had been officially recognized as provisional clinical supervisor.

No Phase Three procedure could resume without an external review of the protocols and renewed patient consent.

All three secondary centers were suspended.

Halven would remain closed until its continuity module was dismantled.

Damon listened to all of it.

”So it’s over?”

Aria looked at him.

”No.”

”Knew it.”

”Varos says there are divisions contesting the suspension.”

”How many?”

”Four of the eleven largest regional divisions.”

Jian Yue became serious.

”Reason?”

”They depend on treatments derived from Vermillion. They’re afraid the investigation will interrupt therapies already being used on patients.”

Ester crossed her arms.

”That concern is legitimate.”

Everyone looked at her.

”The treatments don’t stop working just because the research that produced them involved abuse. If they indiscriminately block everything, people may lose access to things they genuinely need.”

Damon nodded.

”Then they need to separate the treatments from the protocol.”

”Exactly.”

Aria turned the page.

”That’s what Varos is proposing. Preserve already validated therapies, halt coercive structural modifications, and review the origin of each procedure.”

”That’ll take years,” Mu Qing said.

Aurelia answered:

”Probably.”

Damon drank.

”Good.”

Jian Li looked at him.

”Good?”

”Administrative problems that take years mean nobody expects me to solve them with a sword.”

”You’re really enjoying this new philosophy.”

”Very much.”

Aria still wasn’t finished.

”Varos also sent a request.”

Damon closed his eyes.

”Of course.”

”It isn’t asking you to go there.”

He opened them again.

”Continue.”

”He wants permission to send two researchers to Mirath.”

The room became more attentive.

”Why?” Jian Yue asked.

”To consult the historical copies concerning Vaelor and the records about Serik’s original structure.”

Damon looked toward Aurelia.

”Is that safe?”

”Depends on who comes.”

Aria read the names.

One of the researchers specialized in the institutional history of the Order.

The other worked with biological authentication systems and had been one of the first to challenge the existence of execution functions in the marks after the records became public.

Damon thought about it.

”No access to anything Eir didn’t authorize.”

”Naturally,” Aria replied.

”No medical data concerning Neria.”

”Yes.”

”No examining my body.”

Chen Mo looked at him.

”That was specific.”

”Experience.”

Aurelia nodded.

”We can separate the material.”

Jian Yue asked:

”Where would they stay?”

”Mirath,” Damon replied. ”But without unrestricted access to the internal areas.”

Aria wrote it down.

”They can come.”

Damon looked at her.

”That was fast.”

”You established the conditions.”

”I’m starting to understand why leaders like rules.”

Jian Li smiled.

”Careful.”

”Don’t worry. I still hate bureaucracy.”

On the fourth day, Neria sent her first message directly to Mirath.

Not through Eir.

Through Liora.

The black tablet vibrated while Damon was eating.

Aria opened it.

The message appeared in short words, probably because Liora was translating her sister’s thoughts through the network Eir had allowed.

I WALKED TWENTY-THREE STEPS.

Damon stared at it.

Then replied:

DOES ESTER KNOW?

The answer came almost immediately.

YES. SHE SAID I COULD DO TWENTY.

Damon started laughing.

Jian Li, sitting across from him, leaned forward.

”What?”

He showed her.

She laughed too.

Damon wrote:

THEN THE LAST THREE WERE CRIMINAL.

It took a little while.

WORTH IT.

Another message appeared.

LIORA ATE MY FRUIT.

Damon replied:

THAT WAS PREDICTABLE.

The third message came from Liora.

IT WAS MINE.

Damon stared at the tablet.

”They’re arguing about fruit through an ancestral network.”

Aria immediately approached.

”Can I see?”

”No. This is a diplomatic matter.”

She took it anyway.

A short while later, a different message arrived.

Longer.

Neria reported that she and Ester had begun examining which alterations to her body should remain.

No changes had been made yet.

Eir had only compared structures.

Some modifications increased Neria’s autonomy outside the forest.

Others served no current function.

And some remained uncertain.

Damon read it twice.

Then wrote:

NO RUSH.

The reply:

I KNOW.

He set the tablet aside.

That might have been the best consequence of everything they had done.

Neria wasn’t being restored.

She wasn’t being reconstructed.

She wasn’t being returned to whatever someone else considered original.

She was choosing.

By the end of the week, Ester finally allowed Damon to hold a sword without direct supervision.

With conditions.

Naturally.

No real combat.

No explosive movements.

No vampiric energy.

No deliberately testing the ancestral structure.

Damon listened to the entire list.

”Am I allowed to breathe?”

”Moderately.”

”Funny.”

He returned to the courtyard.

This time, nobody came to watch.

Damon stood alone in front of the wooden target.

He raised the sword.

Performed the first movement.

Normal.

The second.

Normal.

On the third, his shoulder began reaching the edge of what felt comfortable.

The connection near his heart warmed.

Damon stopped.

He didn’t let his body complete the movement on its own.

He remained motionless.

Felt it.

The response didn’t demand that he continue.

It didn’t push.

It didn’t try to take control of the movement.

It was simply a possibility.

He adjusted his stance on his own.

Chose another angle.

Performed the strike.

No pain.

Damon lowered the sword.

”Interesting.”

”Yes.”

He immediately turned.

No one was there.

He looked at the ground.

No roots.

”Great. Now I’m hearing Eir in my head.”

”You aren’t.”

Damon raised his eyes.

Aurelia was standing on a balcony above.

He exhaled.

”You need to stop appearing like that.”

”You were talking to yourself.”

”I have that right.”

She came down.

”You felt the connection?”

”Yes.”

”And?”

”It didn’t do anything.”

Aurelia seemed interested.

”Explain.”

”It showed me an alternative. I stopped. Changed the movement myself.”

”So it isn’t an absolute reflex.”

”No.”

”Nor an automatic adaptation.”

”Also no.”

Aurelia remained silent for several seconds.

”Maybe that is the most important difference between your structure and Serik’s protocol.”

Damon looked at her.

”One offers.”

”And the other decides.”

He thought about Adaptation after Caelum.

Possibilities, not imposition.

Curious.

Maybe that idea hadn’t come from nowhere.

Maybe the new functioning of the network was, in some way, closer to what certain organisms had done before someone decided to turn adaptation into standardization.

Damon sheathed the sword.

”Don’t write that down yet.”

Aurelia smiled.

”I’m not Aria.”

”You two spend too much time together.”

She began heading back inside.

Damon looked at the target.

A week earlier, he would have tried repeating the movement until he understood every detail.

Now, he didn’t need to.

The connection was there.

So was the possibility.

That was enough for now.

Tomorrow, he might learn something else.

Or he might not.

For the first time, Damon didn’t feel that not knowing the next step was a threat.

It was simply space.

And he was beginning to like it.