Every nerve in Albedo’s body felt like it had been frayed and rewired with fire. His hands trembled as they pressed into the cracked stone, and the metallic taste of blood lingered on his tongue. Even breathing felt like a battle, each inhale shallow, each exhale trembling.

Beside him, Ember lay sprawled, her majestic coat dimmed with soot and blood. Her chest rose and fell slowly, the flames surrounding her body flickering weakly. But she was alive. Still burning. Still with him.

That was enough.

Albedo shifted slowly, groaning as he rolled onto his side and reached for the satchel at his waist. The orb inside pulsed faintly—its light dimmer now, and the cracks spreading like veins across its surface.

“The Leviathan…” Albedo whispered, fingers tightening around the pouch.

There wasn’t time to waste.

Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to his feet, stumbling once before finally steadying himself and walking towards the Black Thunder Pool.

As he walked, he could sense the Pool’s power. Even from here, its surface shimmered with unstable power, deep violet, etched with writhing arcs of black lightning.

The water churned in place, convulsing with energy like a living nerve exposed to the world, and around the pool, an aura.

Albedo could feel it instantly. His bones itched. His nerves twitched. The air was rich with condensed Black Thunder Essence. The very mana around the pool buzzed with raw, untamed energy.

“This is it,” he murmured, his voice a rasp. “The core of the Mirage…”

He glanced back to Ember.

“Come on girl. We’re not done yet.”

The descent wasn’t fast.

It was slow. Careful. Each step took every ounce of willpower Albedo had left. Ember stumbled beside him, her breaths low and body trembling, but her eyes never once lost their clarity. And neither did his.

Together, they crossed the last threshold, stepping onto the obsidian shore of the Black Thunder Pool.

Up close, the lake was worse. Lightning flickered beneath the surface like storm serpents, and the very air crackled with invisible tension. The wind was nonexistent, yet the world around it trembled constantly.

And then the orb pulsed once more, weak, too weak. It was on the verge of death for sure, so Albedo didn’t wait.

He knelt immediately, pulling the Leviathan’s stasis orb from the satchel and walking carefully toward the edge of the pool. The very surface of the lake roared as he approached, the lightning intensifying.

Albedo muttered an incantation from the Academy’s records, one he had memorized before even reaching this place. Then, carefully, with both hands, he dipped the cracked orb into the water.

~HSSSSSSSSS!~

The surface of the Black Thunder Pool sizzled, lightning leaping upward as if tasting the Leviathan’s presence.

The orb began to glow.

Cracks sealed. The pulse inside it grew steadier, its rhythm stabilizing as the water’s healing, elemental properties soaked into its core.

“I hope you’re ready,” Albedo whispered to the beast within, “This is your rebirth.”

He turned back and faced Ember. “You too.”

The Solaris Equine didn’t need another word. With a weary but proud toss of her mane, she limped forward and stepped into the shallows of the Pool.

And the moment she did,

~CRAAAACK!~

Black lightning coiled around her body like living ropes, slamming into her injured limbs, her scarred hide, and broken bone. The Pool did not welcome passively, it punished, reshaped, reforged.

Ember screamed and roared, yet she knew this was for the best, she felt her blood boiling, her bones growing stronger and the essence of Black Lightning merging with her.

Outside the pool, Albedo closed his eyes and clenched his fists as he watched, reaching into his spatial storage and pulling out some of the Nutrient rich chocolate bars, eating some of them and letting the energy settle into his body.

And then he crossed his legs, sitting upright.

The Black Thunder Essence radiated from the pool in waves. Invisible but undeniable, like heat from a forge. It stung his skin, crackled against his mana circuits, and whispered promises of strength.

He closed his eyes and reached inward.

Mana flowed through his body like currents tracing the lines of a storm. He guided it, threading it through his bones, his nerves, his heart. This wasn’t normal meditation, this was integration.

The Black Thunder Essence wasn’t passive. It lashed out at his core, challenging his right to claim it.

His muscles cramped. His spine twisted. His brain screamed with phantom thunder. But Albedo gritted his teeth, face slick with sweat, and endured.

He continued to absorb the essence. While Humans and the link couldn’t enter the Pool themselves, they could use the essence to increase their affinity with Lightning and improve their physique, and that was what Albedo was doing.

Minutes turned into hours and hours passed quickly as well. Albedo had quickly lost track of time, all he knew was that at least 2 days had passed.

By now, his wounds had all been healed, and he was still training. This was by far the most efficient training he had experienced since Delmoor, and he didn’t want to waste it at all.

Eventually, the black lightning didn’t lash at him anymore. It lingered. It coiled softly around his limbs, like a tamed serpent of divine judgment.

Now, not only did he have his Flames, but he could also manipulate lightning. He also felt his physique was much stronger.

He even felt that compared to Gold Ranked Persons who specialized in training their body, he wasn’t that far behind. The Black Thunder Essence had forged his body into a weapon in of itself.

Now, he felt that he could’ve won that 2v2 duel by just overpowering those 2 with his body. As for his rank, he was only a small way away from High Silver Rank.

He estimated it wouldn’t be long before he reached that level.

He opened his eyes and looked ahead, particularly towards the lake.

And the Pool reflected him, crimson-clad, lightning dancing across his skin, eyes sharp as frost and bright as skyfire.

Across the lake, Ember still stood, her body encased in a lattice of flame and lightning. The scars were gone. Her wounds sealed. Her flames brighter than ever. When she turned to look at him, there was a new heat behind her stare. A deeper burn.

She was reborn. She had skipped all the way from Low Silver to Peak Silver Rank, leapfrogging Albedo.

As for her body, she had grown. Even more, now, she was noticeably larger than even the adult horses from Albedo’s past life, despite being young, and she could manipulate her size at will, growing smaller if she desired.

Albedo finally stood up and walked next to Ember who had exited the Pool, his hand running across her fur. She still felt amazing in his arms, yet underneath that fur, he could sense it, the explosive strength she contained.

It made him proud.

He looked back to the Black Thunder Pool. The orb at this point had sunk into the pool, but he could still see it as it emitted a light blue light. It was growing brighter and brighter, but Albedo still didn’t know when it would wake up.

He decided to kill time training with Ember, both of them battling each-other and testing their new power ups. Now, while he couldn’t match her in raw strength, he was formidable for a Human.

Usually, raw physical strength was the weakness of Humans, as they’d be weaker than monsters or races like Demons at the same rank, but not for Albedo.

~RUMBLE!~

As the two of them were training, the stone beneath Albedo’s feet began to tremble.

At first, it was subtle, just the occasional vibration, like distant thunder. But within seconds, the entire obsidian basin around the Black Thunder Pool began to quake. Ember halted mid-charge, her flames dimming as she turned toward the lake’s center.

Albedo froze as well, eyes locking onto the Pool, whose waters had begun to churn with unnatural violence.

The light beneath the surface, the pale blue glow of the Leviathan’s core,was growing brighter, pulsing like a heartbeat amplified through the storm.

Then,

~CRACK!~

A hairline fracture split the sky above the Pool. Not in the heavens, but within the fabric of the Mirage itself. It was as though the Leviathan’s presence had become too great to contain within the region’s bounds.

~KRA-KOOM!~

The Pool detonated.

A geyser of crackling, violet-tinged water exploded upward, trailing arcs of black lightning that tore across the basin like spears of divine fury. The heavens above flashed with stormlight, and a colossal shape burst forth from the churning depths.

The Leviathan.

Even as a newborn, its presence was awe-inspiring.

It emerged in a spiral, its enormous serpentine body coiling through the air with effortless grace.

Scales the color of oceanic sapphire gleamed in the light, each one lined with streaks of obsidian and etched in ancient primordial runes that glowed faintly with lightning.

Water clung to its form as if worshipping it, sliding down its hide in rippling torrents. Black lightning arced across its body, concentrated along the spinal fins that ran from the crown of its skull down its endless back.

Its head was majestic, long and regal, with a crown of jagged horns shaped like frozen waves and storm clouds. Its eyes burned with intelligence far beyond its age, deep pools of sea-glass blue flecked with starlight.

It roared, and the sound was not just heard, it was felt. A resonant, ancient cry that reverberated through the very bones of the world.

Albedo and Ember stared in stunned silence.

Even Ember, now Peak Silver Rank and reborn in black thunder, lowered her head slightly in instinctive respect.

The Leviathan circled once through the air, its body twisting like a celestial dragon in flight, before slowly descending. The waters parted beneath it, and it floated gracefully above the Pool as if the very lake itself revered it.

Then, slowly, it drifted downward, coiling into itself, drawing closer.

And finally, its head lowered.

The Leviathan brought its colossal face within inches of Albedo.

It could have crushed him with a breath.

Instead, it stared at him, unblinking and unmoving.

And then, with shocking gentleness, it nudged its massive nose against Albedo’s chest, like a mountain bowing to a man.

Albedo’s breath hitched. He reached out instinctively, his hand trembling as he placed it against the Leviathan’s cold, smooth snout. Energy surged through the contact, electric and aquatic mana both humming in his veins.

And then, a voice, not in his mind, but out loud, deep, noble, and resonant.

“Thank you.”

Albedo’s eyes widened. In the Novel, there wasn’t a single creature who could speak, and Ember was an ancient one and not even she could’ve.

“You… can speak?”

The Leviathan’s massive gaze blinked slowly, “I was born from ancient blood, older than fire, deeper than sea. From Birth, I knew, my name, my race, and how to discuss. Since birth, I’ve been weak, but I’ve remembered two people ‘The Moon-Touched Tamer, you call Luna, and you, the one touched by the Crimson Moon.”

Albedo was speechless, all of this was too shocking.

Ember stepped forward as well, eyes narrowed with curiosity but no hostility. The Leviathan turned slightly to regard her, then dipped its head in acknowledgement.

“Celestial Flame Child… You carry the light of suns. I am honored.”

Then, with a low hum, the Leviathan’s body began to shimmer. The runes along its scales glowed brighter, lines of ancient magic activating.

Albedo stepped back as the colossal body began to fold in on itself, shrinking, compressing without losing its majesty. In mere seconds, the sky-filling leviathan was reduced to a sleek, elegant serpent no longer than twenty feet long, still larger than Ember, but manageable.

It hovered above the ground without wings, suspended by a thin aura of water and black lightning.

Albedo stared at the creature, who spoke once again, “My name is Nymarielle,”

Albedo nodded, and used his appraisal.

[ Name – Nymarielle ]

[ Race – Leviathan ]

[ Rank – Mid Bronze ]

He whistled, “Mid Bronze, huh? You don’t feel like Mid Bronze.”

The Leviathan’s serpent-like face formed a subtle smile, “My strength is… nascent. But not small. Give me time, and the sky shall bow.”

Albedo couldn’t help but grin, “Yeah. I think we’re going to get along just fine.”

He turned to Ember, who snorted.

“Don’t worry,” he said, placing a hand on her neck. “You’re still the first.”

She neighed proudly, her flames crackling in agreement and Albedo looked forward, ready to finally leave this place.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep