The third month began with a startling realization during one of my martial training sessions. As I practiced advanced sword forms in the Academy's combat facility, I felt something fundamental shift in my energy patterns—something that made my heart race with both excitement and apprehension.
"Your Sword Resonance is approaching critical mass," Jin observed with obvious amazement as he watched me complete a series of forms that seemed to bend reality around them. "Arthur, you're standing at the edge of Sword Heart."
He was right. I could feel it—the Wall that separated Integration-rank from Ascendant-rank was visible in my mind's eye, close enough that I could almost reach out and touch it. My sword work had evolved to the point where one more breakthrough, one moment of martial enlightenment, would carry me across that legendary threshold.
But that was exactly the problem.
