Chapter 14: The First Step Toward the Felinae Legacy

Two days had passed since the infiltration into the archive room.
Angeline kept the document sealed with aura-blurring magic — accessible only by her unique magical signature. Each night, she locked her room and asked Myra to stand guard outside.
> “If anyone approaches, signal me with vibration magic. I’ll shut down the training immediately.”



---
📜 Rereading the Hidden Legacy
Angeline unrolled the ancient scroll across her desk.The faded glyphs began to glow as her magic touched them.
> “Only direct bloodlines can activate the writing…”


Inside lay the core technique:“True Voidstep — The Fourth-Space Walk.”
> A technique not simply about speed…but bending reality itself, leaping through spatial gaps invisible to the normal world.


Yet a clear warning followed:
> “Untrained bodies will break.Begin only with minor magical cores and short energy routes.Never attempt a full transition in early trials.”



---
⚙️ Training in Solitude
In an abandoned underground mine once used by the academy — discovered long ago by Myra during an exploration — Angeline began her training.
She etched a small magic circle into the ground, replicating the energy diagram from the scroll.
> Step one: Sense the Fourth Spatial Layer.


She closed her eyes.Steady breathing.Her magic flowed toward her feet. The air around her twisted.
The sound echoed strangely. Light dimmed unnaturally.One second… two seconds…
> “Now!”


BOOM!
She dashed — a burst of speed like before — but when she opened her eyes, she was suspended two meters above the ground, falling and crashing hard.
> “Ugh! That was… too shallow. Still not the real Voidstep.”



---
🔄 Failure, Pain, Persistence… Then a Breakthrough
Days passed.
Angeline suffered: nausea, nosebleeds, even brief unconsciousness.She pushed herself to the limit.
> Myra finally snapped.“You’re going to die for that technique? We can find another way, Lin!”


> “If not me, then who?I’m the only Tabaxi in this academy.The only one who can uncover what they’ve buried.”


Myra fell silent… and eventually chose to help — even if still worried.

---
🌌 First Activation: Entering the Fourth Layer
On the sixth night, Angeline tried a new approach:channeling her magic not to her limbs — but to her core, her heart of energy.
Her body trembled. The world split in two.Sound vanished. Colors drained into gray.
Then… absolute silence.
She opened her eyes — and found herself standing in a strange world.A shadow of the real world, but blurred. No people. No sound.
> “This… the Fourth Layer? Void Layer?I… made it.”


But her body began to shake.Staying too long made her feel as if her very existence was unraveling.
With the last of her awareness, she thought:
> Get out… now!


A streak of blue light flashed — and she snapped back into the real world, hitting the floor hard, gasping for breath.
But alive.

---
🐾 A New Power, A New Mark
On the back of her right hand, a mark had appeared —a thin silver line forming a cat’s eye in a ring, identical to the one from the ancient scroll.
It wasn’t just a tattoo —it was a sigil, a connection to the Void Layer itself.
Myra stared in awe and whispered:
> “You… did it.”



---
🌘 End of Chapter
That night, Angeline stood on the dormitory rooftop, gazing up at the moon.
> She now understood — Voidstep wasn’t just a speed technique.It was a bridge to the sealed power of the Tabaxi race… buried for centuries.


And elsewhere, in a hidden chamber, a figure from the secret organization read a glowing report.
> “Voidstep active… A new generation has awakened.”“It’s time to open the First Gate.”