[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-solflare-the-painter-s-secret":3,"chapter-solflare-the-painter-s-secret-solflare-the-painter-s-secret-chapter-40":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Solflare: The Painter's Secret",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1322868,1757,"Chapter 40: You’re Waking!","solflare-the-painter-s-secret-chapter-40",40,"\u003Cp>\"WTF!\" he cursed, then threw himself on the wall that kept on vibrating.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He paddled his arms on the ground, hoping to grab something he could use against whatever that was.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Hey,\" a sharp but calm mechanical voice erupted from the lizard-skin lady.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A sharp giggling sound that echoed like gears grinding against a broken bearing drew Leon’s attention.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Leon’s palms scraped over grit and shattered glass as he scrambled backward.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The cold, humming surface of the wall pulsed against Leon’s spine the moment his back hit the vibrating wall.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the lizard-skinned lady tilted her head, her mosaic of iridescent green and gray scales caught the sourceless ambient light in a wrong pattern.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Hey,\" she said again, her voice modulating into something that sounded melodic. No sound erupted when she took a step forward.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You look lost. Are you hurt?\" Her face shimmered with care, while her big pools of liquid metal eyes fixed on him with an unnerving precision.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the sight of his reflection in her eyes, Leon’s mind screamed at him to run, but his body felt heavy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>’This isn’t real. Hayes said none of this is real.’ Thoughts echoed loudly in his mind, causing him to clutch his head with his palms.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Stay back,\" Leon said, his voice echoing in a dry rasp as he stretched a clenched fist at the lady.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The lady stopped, raised her long-fingered hands. \"I am not your enemy.\" Her face shimmered with a genuine calm, but her eyes said otherwise.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I am... a guide.\" She lowered her hands and tilted sideways.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"This place reacts to fear and feeds on confusion. You must calm yourself.\" Her golden eyes seemed to soften as the molten pools swirled slowly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Breathe with me.\" Her chest rose in an abnormal manner as she inhaled huge amounts of air through her mouth. \"In... and out.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Leon found himself mirroring the slow, exaggerated rise and fall of her shoulders against every instinct.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The oppressive weight and frantic beat of his heart eased in just a fraction of a second.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Slowly, the lizard lady’s terrifying presence began to feel like a stable point in the shifting madness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"That’s it,\" her voice echoed in a low hum that vibrated in his sternum as she cooed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"See? I am here to help. You are far from home, Creator.\" She took a step forward and squeezed her eyes as she focused on Leon’s arms.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You are so very... young, Creator.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The word hit Leon like a physical blow. ’Creator?’ his thoughts repeated the name over and over.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"My name is Leon,\" he corrected, yet his voice came in weak, causing the protest to feel slim.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The lady laughed. \"Human names are just shells,\" she said while taking another careful step closer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Leon saw the fine details of her scales, the way they overlapped like exquisite armor, the moment she reached five inches away from him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"What you are is what matters now.\" She squinted. \"You are the Catalyst, the Shaper.\" She paused, moved her right arm over the boy’s head.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A flicker of gold light erupted from her palm, spiraled like a spring, then entered through the boy’s jet-black hair at full speed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The moment the light emitted from Leon’s head and sprinted upward, a gold light snaked through his eyes like lightning.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Your skill... it is at the foundation.\" The lady’s face saddened as she shook her head. \"Grade E isn’t good. It’s like a spark in a powder keg.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She lowered her arm and placed it on the boy’s head.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Strangely, Leon didn’t flinch as the lady’s finger scraped through his hair.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A static, sharp shock jolted through him, causing his frantic heart to beat again the moment the pinky finger of the lady touched his forehead.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You must grow.\" She pressed her finger harder, almost as if wanting to pierce through his skull.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You must learn to control the boy you’re having.\" She removed her index finger and placed her index and middle fingers there.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You must reach Grade B before your twenty-fifth solar cycle.\" Her voice dropped to an urgent whisper, the mechanical undertone buzzing with deep anxiety.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"If you do not...\" she paused as two acid-like tears fell from her eyes and snaked down her cheeks.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"...the resonance of your untamed power will not just break you, Leon Storm.\" A deep gasp exited her mouth as her eyes forcefully closed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"It will unravel the seams of this world.\" She cracked her eyes open and inhaled deeply.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"The world will collapse inward, and...\" her voice began to shake. \"...and all you see, all you love, will be torn apart by your own hands.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A chill ran down Leon’s spine as he realized the fear in the lady’s voice wasn’t for him, but of him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The reeling energy moving hastily in him calmed when the lady’s fingers fell from his forehead.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When they clutched his right arm, Leon could feel his bones creaking as they cracked under an unusual strength.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You can fix things,\" she said in a pleading tone. \"You can make things whole.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Her voice changed into a sarcastic tone while her cheeks reddened. \"You could... You could remake me.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Her golden eyes locked onto Leon’s brown eyes, and for a moment, the lizard-like visage shimmered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Beneath the scales, Leon saw a ghostly impression of a human face etched with profound sorrow. It was the face of the old woman who carried her basket.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"This form is a cage,\" her voice turned into a whisper, the words vibrating with a pain that felt distinct.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You could use your light to sculpt me anew, Creator.\" Her knees slammed into the ground hard, causing dust to spiral.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Give me back the sun, and the skin that feels it.\" Her strange, horned head bowed slightly as the tension in her slender frame screamed at what her words implied.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Remake?\" Leon’s mouth felt dry. He didn’t understand. But the plea touched that same secret place, the vault of his inheritance. The land his steps created in his dream.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The lady’s words felt less like a request and more like a duty he’d forgotten.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Leon opened his mouth to speak—to ask, refuse, he had no idea. But at that same instant, a sound like a million panes of glass cracking at once fractured the air.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The lizard-lady’s eyes widened in alarm.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"It’s too soon!\" The acid tears doubled as she tilted her head to the right.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You’re waking!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The landscape around them imploded. The ruined buildings, the amber sky, and the very ground beneath their feet all folded inward like a giant fist closing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Space itself became a tightening spiral as it compressed around them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Little by little, the lady’s form began to pixelate and distort into streaks of green and gold light that flew in all directions.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Remember!\" her voice echoed in the same tone as the old woman’s own came.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Grade B! Before twenty-five!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Find the truth of the crash!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Leon felt himself being spun, crushed, when the world became a vortex of screaming color and pressure.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then—HHHHHuh!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His body arched off the bed. A raw, gasping scream tore from his throat in a desperate rush of air.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Stabbing pain lanced through his eyes as the sterile white light replaced the dying vortex the moment his eyes cracked open.\u003C\u002Fp>",1221,"2026-06-05T19:15:29.303Z",1,"novelbin.me","bdce38ea8488e3e0790e6c6e372e82340f965b6dd804e53fac7eb2217ef5475f","solflare-the-painter-s-secret-chapter-41","solflare-the-painter-s-secret-chapter-39",272,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fsolflare-the-painter-s-secret-cover.jpg"]