The divine creature's brilliance shimmered faintly through the dense mist, its colossal presence radiating an energy that seemed to freeze the very air. Then, as though drawn by an unseen thread, its luminous eyes shifted...and fixed directly upon Lucas.

The moment that gaze fell upon him, Lucas felt his body seize. His lungs refused to work. His heart pounded so hard it echoed in his ears. The air felt like it had turned to solid ice. He could not move, could not breathe, could not even think clearly.

He staggered backward, his legs weak beneath him, before falling to one knee in the snow. The invisible weight pressing upon him was suffocating ... as though the heavens themselves had turned their full attention on a single mortal soul. His hand shot to his temple, his mind throbbing in pain. It wasn't just pressure; it was the sensation of being examined.

The others noticed immediately.

"Master!" Lira cried out, her voice sharp with panic. She tried to move toward him, but the divine aura pushed her back. Even Nyx, who had always been calm under pressure, faltered and clung to Selene's arm.

Lucas gritted his teeth, fighting to stay upright. The creature's gaze was unrelenting ... vast, ancient, and utterly alien. It was not hostile, but neither was it gentle. It was the curiosity of a higher being, one who saw mortals as specks of dust, yet found something oddly intriguing about this one speck before it.

The pain intensified, and Lucas's eyes flickered between focus and blur. His own Qi flared unconsciously, reacting to the oppressive force, but it did nothing. He couldn't tell what the creature wanted or why it stared at him so intently. Every part of his body screamed that he was standing in the presence of something far beyond comprehension.

He tried to lower his gaze, to avert his eyes, but he couldn't. His body no longer obeyed him. His heart pounded as if it would burst out of his chest. "Why… me?" he muttered under his breath, though he knew there would be no answer.

The creature's eyes narrowed slightly, a faint pulse of light flashing through them like a ripple on water. It tilted its head, as if studying him further ... not recognizing him, but trying to understand what he was.

It felt his Qi, his energy, his very essence ... and there was something in it that did not belong. Not divine, not demonic, not entirely mortal either. Something different. Something it could not classify.

For a brief moment, the divine being let out a low, resonant grunt that vibrated through the mountain. It wasn't a growl, but a sound of deep curiosity ... the kind that a god might make when faced with an unsolved mystery.

Lucas's vision darkened around the edges. His strength was leaving him fast, his breath coming in short, broken gasps. He could feel his consciousness slipping, his body trembling uncontrollably.

Then, just as suddenly as it began, the pressure lifted.

Lucas collapsed fully to the snow, gasping as air flooded back into his lungs. His entire body ached as if he had just been crushed by an invisible mountain. Lira and Nyx rushed to him the moment they could move again, their faces pale from both cold and fear.

"Xavier! What happened?" Selene demanded, kneeling beside him.

He couldn't answer. His throat was dry, his chest burning. "It… looked at me," he managed to whisper. "It was… curious."

The Empress stood apart, silent, her expression unreadable beneath her veil. But in her mind, she was piecing it together.

The guardian had sensed something strange ... not a bond, not recognition, but difference. The creature had felt the peculiarity of Lucas's soul, the energy that was neither fully of this world nor entirely foreign. It was no wonder it had taken notice.

She folded her hands behind her back, watching quietly as the divine being's glowing eyes lingered one last time on Lucas before turning away, its vast aura rippling across the frozen peaks.

"He intrigued it," she thought to herself. "And that… could either be a blessing or a curse."

The Empress's gaze lingered on Lucas, her eyes half-hidden beneath the sheer veil that swayed faintly in the cold wind. The divine creature had turned away for now, but she could still feel its curiosity directed toward the young man. The tension in the air had not dissipated.

She stood still, silent as the falling snow, her mind weaving rapidly through what she had just witnessed. The guardian's attention had not been arbitrary. It had felt something within Lucas...something powerful, something forbidden, something ancient in nature yet new to this world.

So… that's it, she thought. It wasn't only his soul that was foreign. It's what he carries within.

Her fingers curled slowly at her side. Every being of high cultivation could sense essence...and Lucas's essence was unlike any mortal's. His soul pulsed faintly with an energy that did not align with the current world's laws. It wasn't divine, yet it resonated with a purity that could bind and connect energies, an ability that was as unnatural as it was dangerous.

And she had already seen hints of it before. The endless stream of Qi his companions drew from him without exhaustion. The strange resonance they shared. It wasn't just dual cultivation...it was something beyond. A bond that was spiritual and absolute.

The divine creature had felt it too. That same resonance was what had drawn its gaze. For a being of such magnitude to pause mid-conflict and study a single human meant one thing....that human possessed something extraordinary, something that could threaten or attract even the divine.

The Empress turned her head slightly, her eyes glinting faintly under the snow's dim light. She looked at Lucas, who still stood shaken, supported by Lira and Selene. His breath fogged the air, his eyes still haunted by what he'd just felt.

He had no idea what had truly happened.

She, however, understood perfectly.

If there was any chance ... any possible way ... to wrest that divine creature from its post, to make it yield or serve another, it would have to be through him. His strange, foreign soul had the capacity to bind, to link, to fuse essence in ways the world had not seen before. The guardian had recognized it instinctively.

And so had she.

The Empress's lips curved ever so slightly beneath her veil, the faintest ghost of a calculating smile forming there. She was a celestial being, one who had seen the rise and fall of empires, and even she could not ignore the strange potential standing before her now.

Xavier Alden, she thought quietly. You truly are something this world has never birthed. Perhaps… even I have underestimated you.

The divine creature shifted its massive form slightly in the fog, its light dimming and flaring as if testing the world itself. The aura of divinity trembled faintly, an unspoken warning that it was not yet done.

Lucas looked up weakly, his eyes meeting the Empress's for a brief second. He saw no malice there ... but he did see awareness. Understanding. And something else.

She said nothing. She didn't need to. The truth was already clear between them.

Only he could bridge the gap between mortality and divinity. Only he possessed the strange, foreign spark capable of challenging the bindings of heaven and earth.