Chapter 572: Lacking

Aria yelped.

"H–hey! I-I can’t feel it!" Her fingers clenched reflexively, silver eyes widening as she tried to summon even the faintest echo of lunar light. Nothing answered. No pull. No resonance. Just silence where power had always been. "My spells... they’re gone!"

A low growl rumbled from Luna’s chest, sharp and instinctive. "Same," she snarled, shoulders tensing as lightning refused to stir beneath her skin. "Storm’s not answering me."

For a split second, the bath teetered on the edge of chaos.

Nyx’s breath hitched. Bastet straightened despite the aura pressing down on her like invisible gravity. Even Calypso’s tail lashed once, hard enough to send a ripple through the water.

Then, text appeared.

Now, it did not appear through Kaiden’s summoned screen that others could see - it happened directly in their minds.

The Demonic Pornstar System spoke to them all at the same time.

The words were branded directly into their awareness, impossible to ignore.

Aria’s pupils dilated as the message settled into her thoughts.

Your understanding of the Aspect of the Moon is incomplete.

You wield its power, but do not yet embody its truth.

To surpass the bottleneck: attain Mastery.

She swallowed, breath shallow. The Moon... incomplete?

Luna sucked in a sharp breath a heartbeat later, jaw tightening as her own message followed.

Your understanding of the Aspect of Storm is shallow.

You command force, but not inevitability.

To surpass the bottleneck: attain Mastery.

Nyx went utterly still.

Her usual amusement vanished, replaced by focus as the message reached her.

Your understanding of the Aspect of Space is insufficient.

You traverse it, but you do not yet define it.

To surpass the bottleneck: attain Mastery.

Bastet’s ears twitched.

Your understanding of the Aspect of Dominion is undeveloped.

You exert power, but you have not claimed authority.

To surpass the bottleneck: attain Mastery.

For the first time, the feline queen did not immediately respond with confidence or pride. Her golden eyes burned instead with something thoughtful and dangerous stirring behind them.

Then Calypso laughed once, intrigued.

Your understanding of the Aspect of Carnage is crude.

You revel in destruction, but you do not yet shape it.

To surpass the bottleneck: attain Mastery.

The silence that followed was thick as they realized:

This wasn’t a trial of numbers.

It wasn’t a test of output, endurance, or clever exploitation.

It was a reckoning.

The system demanded they become better at their craft, or they would be stuck at level 49 forever.

Aria’s initial panic ebbed into something quieter. Her grip loosened, shoulders settling as her breathing evened out. The Moon wasn’t gone. It hadn’t rejected her. It had... stepped back. As if waiting to see whether she deserved more than borrowed light.

"So..." she murmured, more to herself than anyone else, "it’s not taking my power away. It’s telling me I’ve been coasting."

Luna huffed, the sound halfway between a growl and a laugh. "Figures. It’s time for a training arc where we meditate and gain insight into our power. We have to gain an epiphany!"

"You watch too much anime," Nyx exhaled slowly. "But... This challenge. I accept it." Space had always been her playground, something she slipped through and bent instinctively. The message stung because it rang true.

Bastet said nothing.

She didn’t bristle. Didn’t snap. Didn’t scoff.

Instead, her tail stilled.

Dominion.

Not solar heat. Not desert wrath. Not the overwhelming violence of a rising sun.

Authority.

Calypso rolled her shoulders with her grin returning slowly, sharper than before. "Crude carnage," she repeated, tasting the words. "Guess I’ve been sloppy."

The realization spread through them, replacing outrage with resolve.

This wasn’t punishment.

It was elevation with teeth.

The system wasn’t asking them to grind harder. It wasn’t dangling numbers or rarities.

It was demanding refinement of the powers they wielded.

Then Kaiden stiffened.

Unlike the others, his message didn’t arrive as a single statement.

It came in layers.

Pressure built behind his eyes as text unfurled directly into his awareness, heavier than anything the girls had received.

Your understanding of the Aspect of Wrath is incomplete.

You channel destruction, but do not yet command its purpose.

A familiar heat stirred in his chest.

Your understanding of the Aspect of Gluttony is flawed.

You consume to endure, but do not yet comprehend excess.

The echo of endless hunger brushed against his senses, not as pain, but as potential.

Your understanding of the Aspect of Pride is shallow.

You wield supremacy, but have not defined what stands beneath you.

Arcane sigils flickered in his mind’s eye, incomplete, awaiting structure.

The message ended without instruction.

Only the final verdict came.

To surpass the bottleneck: attain Mastery.

Seeing these lines of text, Kaiden couldn’t help but exhale slowly. He felt a bit dejected.

He’d tried. Truly. He hadn’t treated his powers like buttons on a screen or lines of text to be optimized. He hadn’t just read spell descriptions - he’d tried to understand them better.

And still... "It wasn’t enough, huh?"

"... Yeah," Nyx murmured quietly. "It appears our approach was not satisfactory."

"Wait!" Luna gasped when she realized that, one by one, a new line appeared in each of their minds.

[New Ability Acquired]

’Begin’

"Huh?" Aria blinked, then frowned slightly as she focused inward. Her expression shifted with surprise, flickering across her face. "It’s... It’s a spell I can cast," she whispered. "It costs one mana point."

She swallowed.

"Should I try it?" Calypso offered immediately, already rolling her shoulders and shifting forward with the easy readiness of someone fully prepared to throw herself into danger so that others didn’t have to. While she wasn’t a dedicated tanker, as she could dish out just as much damage as she could take, the demoness was ready to shield her friends and lover with her body. "I can take whatever hits come first."

"No, wait," Luna spoke up. "This feels deliberate. Like... a trigger. A transport. A transition." She glanced around at the others. "A separate space. A mindscape. Somewhere we’ll be given the tools to actually attain mastery."

She paused, then added more firmly, "If that’s the case, we shouldn’t rush it."

"...Meaning?" Aria asked warily. Then dryly added, "You truly do watch a bit too much anime, Luna..."