Samvek smiled faintly. “Everything worthwhile has a cost,” he said. “You’ve paid enough of them already. I trust you to choose which ones are worth paying.”

  That was enough. I nodded once, more to myself than to him, and let the singing rise again, softer this time, shaped by resolve rather than uncertainty.

  I reached inward and drew on Vitae deliberately. This ability was from the Hell System. Vitae was the currency there, not mana. Life force taken by violence. It was more potent than mana, but less versatile and harder to restore, at least based upon what I’d seen so far. The Hell System used mana when it suited its ends, but the most vital transactions depended on Vitae.

  The drain was immediate and unmistakable, a cold pressure blooming behind my sternum as the reservoir dipped. I felt reluctant to give it up, like I craved every bit of Vitae that my body could get. Even parting with only a twentieth of my reserves made me feel like I imagined a junkie would after a week-long detox.

  I guided the flow of Vitae with Spirit Singing, shaping it gently so it wrapped around Samvek’s soul instead of piercing it. The instincts of my Hell System class urged me to push harder, to make the change permanent and profound, but I refused them, keeping the touch light.

  When the Vitae made contact, Samvek’s soul responded like tempered steel under a careful hammer. There was no flare of power, no violent reaction, only a gradual densification along the stress lines I had mapped. As the thinned areas were reinforced, it felt less like adding something new and more like restoring balance that had been eroded over time.

  The Vitae seeped into his soul, into the underlying structure that kept it all together, and I could see that strengthening, too. I opened my eyes and looked at his face, but his eyes were closed in deep concentration.

  The flashes of color intensified then, clustering close enough that I swore I could almost sense curiosity coming from them. They brightened as the harmony held, drifting in slow arcs around us, then pulsed once in unison as the forging settled. I didn’t try to grasp them or name them, but their presence made the moment feel witnessed in a way that set my nerves on edge. With each flare of Vitae, they would back off, before curiosity got the better of them once again. It was like the power was hostile to them, but they couldn’t bring themselves to look away.

  Now that I felt I knew at least a little bit about what I was doing, I did what I always do. If five percent of my Vitae could enhance him like this, what would ten or twenty percent do? My mentor deserved the best I could give him, and if I could pull this off, I was sure we would both be happy with the results.

  The notifications started to pour in.

  Samvek Rayden’s soul has been augmented.

  Resistance to spiritual attacks and Hell mana have been increased by fifteen percent. Will +250, Perception +150.

  That was a good start, but it was ultimately a rounding error for someone as powerful as Samvek. Sure, he didn’t have my bloated stats, but he was still doing good for himself. I wanted more for him. I peered deeper into our connection, taking note of how his body and soul played off each other. I smiled when I realized how similar this seemed to golem building.

  I felt like I could do more for him. As I pushed a combination of song and Vitae into his body, another notification popped up.

  System Access to the voluntary subject Samvek Rayden has been granted. Special attention will be paid to the modifications you make. Note: some bells can’t be unrung.

  That notification alone should have been enough to convince me to stop. It would have been for most people, but I kept pushing. Good things always came when I pushed, and for too long, I’d felt the power gap between me and Samvek growing. I wanted to do as much as I could for him, and if being an Architect of the System was good for tinkering with my own build, I figured it should be good for helping my friends, too.

  As I pushed more Vitae into his body, he started to spasm, but he grabbed my hands in his. “Keep going,” he hissed.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven: Flesh Builder

  The Vitae began to fuse with his body, and the life within his cells exploded before my eyes. He grimaced, but we were beyond the point where I could stop. I needed to see this through, or it would be much worse for Samvek.

  It would have been a mistake to think that this process was either of body or soul—it involved both. As I pondered that, I realized I already existed in that state, as did all ascendants. I just happened to reach it earlier as part of my racial evolutions. I existed with a blended spiritual-physical body. This had served me well, giving me extra resistance against a variety of beings and attacks that would have otherwise overwhelmed me.

  I wondered if I could create the same within Samvek. After watching Tad awaken Clay, I recognized the process at play here as being similar. But awakening wasn’t natural to the Heavens. How was I supposed to do something like it?

  The answer to that was obvious, and explained why the system had spoken to me by title. It wanted change. The system realized that it needed to evolve if it was going to survive whatever challenges it faced, and while Gallarosa may have provided stability, she was conservative in her designs, and never thought outside the box.

  As some might say, thinking outside the box was sort of my thing.

  I stayed with the weaving, even as Samvek’s breathing grew ragged and the song in my chest threatened to slip out of harmony. Every time I further reinforced his soul, his body lagged behind, tissue straining to keep up with spiritual density it had never before contained. When I shifted focus and strengthened the flesh, the soul pushed back, surging forward and tearing at its own anchors. It was like trying to force two gears together that had been forged for different machines.

  One thing became painfully clear—I didn’t have the experience or training to do this. But who did? Every pioneer in a field did things that hadn’t been done before. It was part of what it meant to be a Trailblazer, and that was at the core of my identity. I even felt a surge of primordial power rise within me, if only to resonate with my realization.

  Samvek’s hands clenched around mine, muscles locking as a tremor ran through him. Sweat poured down his face, and his jaw clenched hard enough that I heard a tooth crack. I could feel the imbalance spreading, subtle at first, then accelerating as each correction amplified the problem elsewhere. If I kept pushing this way, I wouldn’t make him stronger. I would tear him apart.

  I pulled back just enough to think, the song dropping to a bare thread that kept everything from collapsing outright. What I was seeing wasn’t a flaw in Samvek, but a natural boundary. Mortals weren’t meant to fully exist in that blended state without permission, without some higher authority smoothing the transition. For me, that had been the racial evolution process with the guidance of the system and more experienced individuals like Bahran. I had crossed that line through evolutions and circumstances that shouldn’t have been possible, but Samvek was still on the other side of it. Even with all the help I’d had, it had still required constant healing of my body for me to survive some of my evolutions.

  With that thought in mind, I cast Celestial Restoration on Samvek. The healing power surged through him and repaired damage, even that cracked tooth, but he was still out of balance. New damage appeared as quickly as the previous damage was healed. I layered multiple copies of the spell on him, hoping that the regeneration effect would keep him up and running. I even tried boosting the duration of the spells, wanting to keep them going as long as possible.

  You have gained the Extend Spell skill: 10

  Channel Mana—Other 104 >> 108

  Tad’s awakening of Clay came back to me then, providing a possible pattern for how to proceed. In that case, the power had come from an outside source, but Tad had guided it. He’d given it shape and legitimacy through authority, letting the system accept what would otherwise have been rejected. That authority hadn’t come from strength alone, but from who Tad was.

  Problem was, I didn’t think that would work for me. Yes, the Hell System was based on authority and power, but Tad was literal royalty, not just of a world, but of the Fey System itself. That wasn’t who I was… or was it? A list of titles, connections, and accomplishments sprang up. If there was any position within the Heavens System that was the same as a royal fey to the Fey System, it was Architect of the System.

  I glossed over the fact that I wasn’t a divine-tier being, but then again, neither was Tad.

  There was more to me as well. The primordial aspect within me might be sealed, but it represented a concept older than the system. I was also now part of House Kalestian, the adopted son of Abel Kalestian. If there were any nobility or even royalty under the Heavens, that family certainly qualified. No, not that family. My family.

  Again, I was reminded that the system hadn’t called me Architect by accident. It wasn’t flattering me or reminding me of past accomplishments. It was pointing at a function I hadn’t fully embraced yet. Architect wasn’t an empty title. It was permission to design.

  I felt Samvek’s condition deteriorating, the strain reaching a point where backing out cleanly was no longer an option. Stopping now would leave him damaged, caught between states without support. I swallowed and made the decision that had been hovering at the edge of my thoughts since this began.

  I was never going to awaken him the way the fey did. I didn’t have that authority, and even if I did, it would create a hierarchy neither of us wanted. That wasn’t the way the Heavens worked. I was meant to borrow from other systems, but only to improve what already existed.

  What I did have was my bloodline, my path, and the strange, heretical place I occupied between systems. If awakening required authority, then I would provide a different kind of authority, one rooted in friendship rather than service.

  I reached for that part of myself deliberately. It wasn’t human entirely, but it was an evolution from humanity, which somehow hadn’t lost any of its purity. I’d never questioned that before, and didn’t have time to do so now. I knew that my bloodline could be passed on to my children or to a partner like Selena, but it was going to take an Architect to pass it on to a friend, even if only in part.

  The moment I asserted that authority, something shifted. There was nothing explosive or dramatic about it. It flowed out as naturally as my spirit song. It was like a lock clicking open after a long, careful turn. The system, apparently, was content to watch, and gave no comment or warning on what I was attempting. From my experience with the system, it might as well have been cheering me on.

  I wove the bond next, not as a chain but as a bridge, offering my recognition of who he really was. You are like me. You walk this path with me. We stand together. The connection formed quietly, a shared lineage, and the pressure inside Samvek eased immediately.

  His breathing steadied and the violent tremors subsided into manageable tension. Soul and body stopped fighting one another and began to settle into a shared rhythm, neither dominant, neither suppressed. I felt the bond take hold, thin but resilient, a channel that carried understanding rather than control.

  My relief was sharp enough that I nearly sagged forward. I held the song steady until I was certain the change had stabilized, then let it soften into a sustained hum. Samvek’s eyes opened and met mine, clear and focused despite the pain he was still riding through.

  Whatever I’d just done couldn’t be undone. It wasn’t awakening as any system defined it. It was something new, born of necessity and choice rather than tradition. As the weight of that settled over me, I understood that this was only the beginning.

  The bond held, steady and quiet, but it didn’t solve everything. I could feel the mismatch still there, reduced but not gone, like a machine running smoother while still lacking the right fuel. Samvek’s soul was anchored now, strong enough to hold what was being asked of it, but his body lagged behind, flesh still bound by limits that no amount of spiritual reinforcement could fully erase.

  I exhaled slowly. “This next part is going to hurt.”

  “The last part hurt.”

  “This will hurt more. I need to give you some of my blood.” I didn’t wait for an answer because he was already nodding, jaw set, eyes steady. Samvek flexed his fingers and his claws extended. Without ceremony, he sliced a clean line along his forearm, blood welling bright and alive. I mirrored him, my blood flowing freely only because I willed the wound to stay open, holding my regeneration in check.

  The scent of blood hit me harder than I expected. Blood was life, and my body understood that truth now at a level I’d never fully explored. The Elvimpris element of Blood is Life came with a certain craving, but it was one I could manage. I willed a stream of my blood to flow from my body to his, guiding it with a bridge created from a force construct.

  Blood is Life answered immediately.

  I felt it happen at a scale too small to see and too vast to fully comprehend. My blood carried more than cells. It carried pattern, lineage, permission. Vitae followed it like a shadow, threading through Samvek’s bloodstream and into places that had never known it before. His body reacted violently at first, muscles seizing, breath hitching as tissues rejected and then reaccepted the change. Vitae was alien to him, yet through our bond, he was adapting to it.

  I held on and guided it, forcing myself to stay precise. Cells broke down and reformed cleaner, stronger, more efficient, the Vitae adapting synergistic relationships within its host. Capillaries reinforced, fibers tightened, and pathways widened just enough to allow Vitae to circulate without tearing him apart.

  Samvek groaned, back arching as the transformation deepened. I could feel his body learning, adapting in real time, finding its own equilibrium. There was no outward change, no monstrous reshaping, just an internal perfection of what already existed. When the worst of it passed, his breathing steadied and the tension drained from his frame in a long, shuddering exhale.

  Something shifted then, deeper than flesh. I felt the Hell System take notice. There was nothing gentle about how it worked, but in this case, it didn’t seek to harm him. Instead, it had simply recognized one of its own, and just like I had been, he was offered a class from a second system. I couldn’t have guessed what the class was, and even if I could have spared the time to Identify it, I wouldn’t. He would share it with me when he was ready. That was what this was all about. He wasn’t my minion. He was my friend.

  I let our arms separate. My wound sealed the moment that I stopped restraining my natural regeneration, and the same happened for Samvek, just a fraction of a second slower. My Vitae reserves felt lighter, the hollow ache behind my sternum noticeable, but I didn’t regret it. I’d passed a little more than half of the reserves I’d held to him, which should give him a good start on whatever his new class was. Samvek looked the same as ever, but when he flexed his fingers, there was a new density to the movement, a quiet confidence in how his body responded.

  “That worked better than I expected,” he said hoarsely.

  I was caught off-guard. If he thought this was better than he’d expected, how badly had he expected me to mess up?

  “I had no idea what form this would take. As always, you surprised me—in a good way. The changes are still settling in, but I’ll fill you in on the details as soon as I know them myself.”

  I nodded. “Let me do one more once-over to make sure there aren’t any problems I missed before.”

  I reached out with everything I had to examine him, letting the new bond do what it had been created to do. Spirit Sight showed me a soul that was brighter and denser than before, its structure no longer straining against the body it inhabited. Spirit Singing brushed over it, finding harmony where there had once been friction. I felt a deep, quiet satisfaction at that, the kind that came from a craft done well.

  Then I saw it.

  There was a narrow place within Samvek’s soul, not a flaw or a wound, but an opening that hadn’t existed before. It reminded me of a socket waiting for a piece that had never been meant to fit, a space defined by its potential. I knew, with the same certainty that guided my blade in battle, what belonged there.

  I pushed Psi into that opening.

  The reaction was immediate and violent, the bond between us flaring bright enough that I gasped and had to brace myself. Samvek’s soul surged in response, folding around it, adapting with startling speed. I felt his body answer the change as well, muscles tightening and posture straightening as something fundamental rewrote itself from the inside out. My Psi reserves were far from full, but apparently they had at least partially regenerated during the time I’d been working on Samvek.

  Through the bond, the change echoed back into me. Whatever had awakened in him resonated, and I felt it slot into place within my own structure as if it had always been there. Power flooded through me—focused, purposeful, and alive. Notifications hammered at the edges of my awareness, too many and too fast to process, but I ignored them and stayed with Samvek until the surge subsided.

  When it was over, the space between us felt different, deeper and more stable than before. Samvek inhaled sharply and then let out a long breath, eyes snapping open with a new intensity behind them. A rush of even more system notifications pressed on me. They were coming from more than one system, and some of them could not be denied or delayed.

  The first one hit like a sack of bricks.

  New principles and options integrated into the Heavens. The potential for select individuals to gain dual classes now exists, but these individuals must be linked to an Architect of the System.

  Your Borrow from Other Systems quest has been updated to 1 of 4. You have borrowed from the Hell System. The integration of Vitae as an alternative energy source has begun, and you have created an individual with dual classes from the Hell System.

  Samvek Rayden has gained the Blood Hunter class, at the equivalent of legendary tier. Details are specific to him.