My attributes are increasing infinitely

Chapter 485: Unfathomable Potential(2)

The woman’s eyes narrowed.

”Those records are incomplete. They were sealed by the heroes themselves.”

The shadow figure moved for the first time.

It shifted slightly, and a voice emerged from the darkness—neither male nor female, neither young nor old, but something that resonated in the bones of those who heard it.

”The heroes did not seal those records because they were dangerous.”

A pause.

”They sealed them because they were unfinished.”

The words settled over the hall like a weight.

The old man nodded slowly.

”The heroes,” he said, ”were the ultimate existences. The peak of potential. The highest expression of what this world could produce. Or at least history tells us that. But you never know, the world of Elysium is infinite, so everything can be possible.”

He looked at the dust again.

”But before the heroes, there was something else. Something that even the heroes could not fully understand. Something that existed before the hierarchy was established.”

He turned back to Ethan.

”Something that may have just returned.”

---

Outside the hall, the Dark Gold light had faded from the sky.

But the memory of it remained.

Members stood in clusters, none of them speaking, all of them processing what they had witnessed. The dog-headed man had not moved from his position. His claws were still dug into the stone.

A younger member approached him hesitantly.

”What happened?” the youth asked. ”What was that light?”

The dog-headed man did not answer immediately.

When he did, his voice was rough.

”That,” he said slowly, ”was something that should not exist.”

He looked toward the hall, where the elders had gathered.

”Something that changes everything.”

The youth frowned.

”Changes how?”

The dog-headed man finally turned to look at him. His eyes were no longer curious. They were something closer to fear.

”The hierarchy of this clan,” he said, ”is built on potential. Bronze to gold. Platinum to diamond. Legend to epic. Mythical to ultimate.”

He paused.

”Those ranks determine everything. Resources. Authority. Position. The entire structure of how we operate.”

He looked back at the hall.

”When something exists outside that structure, something that breaks the tools used to measure it, the structure itself becomes meaningless.”

The youth’s face paled.

”You mean—”

”I mean,” the dog-headed man said, ”that the rules will change. And no one knows what the new rules will be.”

---

Inside the hall, the elders had formed a loose circle around the platform.

Ethan had not moved. His hand remained extended, though there was nothing beneath it now. His expression was calm, but his eyes tracked the elders with a focus that had not been there before.

The old man from the seventh floor was the first to break the silence.

”What is your name?”

Ethan lowered his hand slowly.

”Ethan.”

The old man nodded.

”Ethan.” He spoke the name as if testing its weight. ”You came here with Dominic. You had no knowledge of this clan before today.”

It was not a question.

”No,” Ethan said.

The woman with white hair stepped forward.

”And you did not know what your potential was.”

Ethan’s gaze shifted to her.

”I knew it was unusual.”

A faint smile touched her lips. It did not reach her eyes.

”Unusual,” she repeated. ”That is one way to describe it.”

The shadow figure spoke again, its voice resonating through the hall.

”The disk recorded eight distinct transitions before it broke. Bronze to silver to gold. Gold to platinum to emerald. Emerald to white. White to red. Red to purple. Purple to gold. Gold to black. Black to golden black.”

It paused.

”Eight transitions. And then the ninth transition, the one that broke it.”

The old man’s eyes narrowed.

The words hung in the air.

The woman’s smile faded completely.

”You are suggesting?” she asked.

”I am suggesting,” the old man replied, ”that we do not know what we are looking at. And that we should be very careful about making assumptions.”

He turned to face the other elders directly.

”The disk is destroyed. That has not happened in the history of this clan. Not once. Not even in the known history of Elysium.”

He looked back at Ethan.

”This young man’s potential exists outside every framework we possess. It broke an eonic artifact simply by being measured.”

His voice hardened.

”That is not a curiosity. That is a fundamental event.”

The woman folded her arms.

”What do you propose?”

The old man was silent for a long moment.

Then he spoke, his words measured and deliberate.

”There are levels to this clan that even the eighth floor does not access. Chambers that have remained sealed since the founder’s time. Records that only the elders can view.”

He looked at the shadow figure.

”It is time to unseal them.”

The shadow figure did not respond immediately. When it did, its voice was quieter than before.

”That will require a unanimous vote of the elders.”

”Then call the vote,” the old man said.

The woman shook her head slowly.

”You are moving too quickly. This is unprecedented. We need time to—”

”Time,” the old man interrupted, ”is not a luxury we have.”

He gestured toward the dust on the platform.

”This event was not contained. Every member of this clan saw the light. Every member felt the pressure. And by now, word will have spread beyond the castle walls.”

His eyes darkened.

”Other clans will have noticed. The spatial disturbance alone would have registered on any detection formation within a hundred miles.”

The woman’s expression tightened.

”You think they will come?”

”I know they will come,” the old man said. ”To test. To observe. To claim, if they believe they can.”

He turned back to Ethan.

”We need to understand what we are protecting before we have to protect it from everyone else.”

The woman was silent for a long moment.

Then she nodded slowly.

”Call the vote,” she said.

The shadow figure shifted, and for a moment, the darkness around it seemed to deepen.

”It is already being called,” it said.

And deep within the castle, in chambers that had not seen light in centuries, the process began.

---

Dominic remained on his knees, forgotten by the elders, ignored by the members who crowded the entrance.

His mind was still trying to catch up.

He had found Ethan by accident. A chance encounter on a routine tour. A young man who had not even known what potential was, who had asked questions that suggested he was discovering the world for the first time.

And that young man had just shattered the foundation of the clan.

He looked up at the platform, at the figure standing calmly amid the dust of the artifact, and one thought surfaced above all others.

What did I bring into this castle?

He did not have an answer.

And from the expressions on the elders’ faces, neither did they.

The testing hall had fallen silent again.

But it was not the silence of shock this time.

It was the silence of a clan that had just realized its history was no longer what it had been.

That the rules had changed.

And that no one, not the elders, not the supreme beings, not the founder himself—knew what came next.

Ethan stood at the center of it all, his hand finally at his side, his expression unchanged.

”I would like to know the nature of my personality. Is there any similar artifact in the clan?”, he asked calmly.