Veil of Aether

The kids spent the remaining time refining their techniques. With all of them—besides Kei Y—having broken through to the Washed Body stage, the first tier of Physical Cultivation, both their bodily and core cultivation paths had been firmly rooted.

Fully equipped with the gear Kei Y had crafted for them, along with the rewards they had earned from the fractured zones, the group sparred regularly under Auserre’s watchful eye. With her master also observing through the water mirror, Auserre carefully analyzed each student. She examined their combat styles, aether circulation, and force application from a broader, more analytical perspective.

What she saw pleased her. Kei M and Silvie stood out most—both exhibited movement patterns and reactions that made it clear they had received formal training from a young age. Their control, discipline, and spatial awareness were leagues ahead of most new cultivators.

The others, while talented, clearly hadn’t been exposed to combat until recently. In particular, Mia still didn’t fully grasp the true dangers of the world she had entered. Despite that, she was remarkably diligent. When asked where she’d learned her combat style—Tai Chi—she pointed at Silvie, explaining that the older girl had taught her. That alone impressed both Auserre and Oceana. For a child raised in poverty, Silvie was not only a fast learner, but also a patient, natural teacher.

Mia’s form also bore subtle influences from the Vendor’s teachings. His imprint added layers of depth to her movements, making them more meaningful, fluid, and responsive than before. But as Auserre continued watching, something began to feel familiar. Mia’s motions were steady, balanced—almost as if someone else should be mirroring them. It felt more like a synchronized dance than solo martial practice.

Following her instinct, Auserre stepped forward and began mirroring Mia’s slow Tai Chi forms. So focused was the little girl that she didn’t even notice her master’s presence at first. Their movements aligned naturally, like two dancers in perfect sync. And as Auserre watched more closely, something clicked.

She turned her gaze toward the pond nearby—the one Mia was always drawn to.

“…Koi fish?” she murmured under her breath, a memory beginning to surface.

She recalled the young girl training in the pond, moving as if in a trance. Each gesture flowed like a koi fish gliding beneath still water—graceful, fluid, serene. The resemblance was uncanny, and now, observing Mia’s current movements, Auserre saw that same rhythm again. It was subtle but consistent. Odd, perhaps, but undeniably effective. This unconventional approach seemed to solidify Mia’s foundations more deeply than formal drills could. And in the long run, it would only serve to help her.

As for her Force Alignment—Auserre already knew what it was.

Reciprocity.

A simple principle on paper: give and take. For what she gave, she gained. For what she took, she lost. Straightforward. Fair. Balanced.

And yet, Auserre found it stifling. Because when it came to Mia—the God Spark of Balance—the ratio was warped. Every exchange was amplified. Gains and losses didn’t align as they should. They spiraled. Escalated.

The children had explained what happened.

Before this, Mia had been fragile—her body brittle, her condition chronic. Barely able to function on her own. Then Inpu began cultivating nearby, using his Balance-aligned rune strokes to draw in aether for them both. And from that moment on, Mia’s condition reversed completely.

The fair guess was that Inpu’s runes had siphoned away her misfortune and converted it into a fair gain—her bones reinforced, her health stabilized. But for the effects to last this long? For them to hold even after the cultivation ended?

That didn’t add up.

So Auserre investigated further. She considered the source of the aether used in those rune strokes. She expected to find some hidden legacy source. A relic. A refined artifact. But no. It had been supplied by Silvie and Kei Y.

Two cultivators.

Both low-ranked.

Both supposedly ordinary.

And yet… that was when she paused.

Because Kei Y was not ordinary. And neither was Silvie.

She shelved the obvious explanations. Ignored the system-class limitations. And followed the logic to its only remaining path:

Mia hijacked the rules.

She didn’t ask for permission. She didn’t consciously override anything.

But the moment Inpu’s runes created a gateway, she, as a God Spark, rewrote the outcome. Amplified the exchange. Bent the system’s rules to take not just equal fortune—but more. Much more. And the only reason she could get away with it…

…was because the aether fueling that miracle had passed through two other God Sparks first.

Kei Y and Silvie.

Inpu, on the other hand, was a different case. He seemed almost desperate to make up for lost time, likely due to the hardships of his upbringing. That hunger to improve pushed him forward with zeal—but it also made him erratic. Sometimes he let his inferiority complex get the better of him. Believing his talents to be too far below those of his companions, he would rush. That led to missteps in his rune strokes and left gaps in his swordplay that Auserre knew could be corrected with time and confidence.

Still, the raw potential in both of them was obvious.

Kei M, for his part, was a natural genius—the kind that didn’t require titles or accolades. Strip away his God Spark designation, and he would still shine. His combat style was sharp, instinctive, and precise. Every movement he made during sparring was quick, adaptive, and measured—a display of someone who had long since internalized the rhythm of battle.

The addition of the weapon that Auserre found to be rather odd, only made his form more daunting. The weapon stretched out in a ranged manner, allowing him to strike from a distance of his choosing. Aided by his spark which allowed him to instantly change the protectory and increase the speed and force that it struck with, Kei M proved to be an unpredictable danger.

He was currently matched against Silvie, and even though their friendly spar was meant for training, his strikes carried weight—not just in power, but in clarity of execution. Each blow was efficient, delivered with calculated force that left no motion wasted.

His Force Skills, rooted in Sound, were as troublesome as they were overwhelming. The typical sonic blasts erupting from his throat created sharp waves that screeched through the air, disrupting anyone caught in their path. His signature move, Bass Drop, didn’t just cause shockwaves—it disrupted the very footing of his opponents, throwing their sense of balance into chaos.

But that was just the beginning.

Inspired by the Echo Rebound skill he received during the fractured zone trial with Silvie and Kei Y, Kei M had taken things further. He’d begun layering that rebound effect directly into Bass Drop, allowing it to stack—each echo building on the last.

The result?

He could now apply mental disruption layered atop physical disruption, destabilizing an enemy from the inside out. The shockwaves wouldn’t just rattle your footing—they’d rattle your focus, your perception, your nerves.

And to be honest, enduring the physical chaos was traumatizing enough. But when Kei M combined it with the innate weight of his Spark, the experience became downright daunting.

It was the kind of ability that silenced opponents before they could even speak.

And watching him wield it so casually, so efficiently—it made even the seasoned masters observing quietly admit, if only in their minds:

That boy is dangerous.

The rhythm Kei M controlled was relentless. It forced Silvie to stay on the defensive, making her consciously adjust every movement just to stay upright. His sonic disruptions weren’t just external—the waves rattled her insides, throwing her natural flow into disarray. And to make things worse, Kei M’s hand-to-hand combat skills were nothing short of lethal. His techniques were sharp, fluid, and amplified through Sound Force, making each strike hit harder and land smarter. He wasn’t just dangerous—he was terrifyingly efficient.

But Silvie wasn’t the type to back down.

She was the student of Ren Sui.

To most, that name meant nothing. But if someone like Auserre were to learn of his true capabilities, even she would be forced to acknowledge him with genuine respect.

Refusing to be overwhelmed, Silvie chose to meet force with force.

Activating her God Spark, her scarf unraveled—splitting into ten threads, one wrapping neatly around each of her fingers. The threads coiled up her arms, glowing faintly with stored aether as she entered her Puppet Form. Some of the threads extended into her own body, linking to her meridians and muscles, granting her a degree of internal control few cultivators could even imagine.

With the puppetry effect active, she began undoing the internal disruption Kei M had caused—synchronizing her heartbeat, stabilizing her breath, even calming the microscopic tremors within her.

It wasn’t just resistance. It was mastery.

Now, instead of being thrown off by Kei M’s rhythm, Silvie began to sync with it, then distort it, shifting the flow of battle in her favor.

She didn’t fight like a traditional martial artist or a mage. She fought like a puppet master pulling invisible strings—each move sharp, deliberate, and impossibly controlled.

Nature Force surged through Silvie’s body, infusing her limbs with vitality. Her movements became stronger, faster, and more grounded—her muscles denser, her defense heightened. Every breath she took seemed to resonate with the world around her, as if nature itself had joined her side.

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Then, in a blink, she vanished.

A burst of speed—a blur of green—and she appeared beside Kei M, her fist already flying forward. He raised his arms in time to block, but it felt like catching a collapsing mountain. The force behind the punch launched him back, his body skidding violently across the dirt.

As he tumbled through the air, he glanced at his forearm and noticed a thin thread wrapped around it—one of Silvie’s puppet strings.

Before he could react, she pulled herself forward along the line, twisting midair and slamming down with a devastating axe kick.

BOOM.

Kei M cratered into the earth with a thunderous impact, dust erupting skyward from the force of the blow.

He groaned, pain searing through his body. But he forced himself to lift his head, blinking through the haze to see Silvie standing above him—smiling.

Something was wrong.

He felt it—a prickling sensation under his skin. Not just in one place… but several.

His eyes widened.

The threads. They weren’t just wrapped around his limbs—they had pierced him.

He could feel the control slipping from his body, subtle at first, then rapidly spreading. One hand wouldn’t move. Then a leg twitched unnaturally. He realized with dawning horror that Silvie's spark had already begun infiltrating him—stealing control, thread by thread.

And through it all, she just kept smiling.

and through that smile Kei M was gazing at, he felt vines snake through the ground to tangle him as he was using his spark to deflect all the vines spearing towards him, seeing as Kei M's resonant shield was being more of an issue than she expected, she altered the vines breaking them apart into their components, the water shuttling through the air as the earthen component shifted to the ground granting her access to manipulate the very ground they were fighting on.

Kei M was finding it more and more daunting to fight Silvie as time pressed on

Oceana couldn’t help but be impressed as she watched the clash unfold before her.

“They truly are powerful,” she murmured. “To have such unrestricted control over their forces… it’s just as the legends described. Maybe even more.”

“Impressive indeed,” Auserre nodded. “I’m not sure what Sanu’s limits are, but Kei—he’s been holding back. A lot. Seems like he’s trying to reinvent himself.”

Oceana turned to her, brows slightly raised. “Holding back? Just how much stronger can he actually be?”

“It’s not really a matter of ‘how much stronger,’” Auserre replied thoughtfully. “It’s more like... how much more terrifying he could be. His entire demeanor now is a complete 180 from how he used to be. Back then, he was a genuine terror to anyone unfortunate enough to become his enemy—especially if they didn’t have the strength to stand up to him.”

Oceana tapped her chin, curious. “Then, if the past him and the current him were to fight, who would win?”

Auserre thought for a bit.

“The current him would definitely hold his own, especially with the knowledge he’s accumulated since. But if you stripped away any memory or understanding of his former self—made it so he didn’t know how he used to fight—then I’d bet on the past version. That version carried a kind of mental pressure that broke people before he even laid a hand on them. It’d be hard for the current him to endure that intensity head-on.”

“…Hm. Aus,” Oceana said softly, “you better do right by that boy.”

Auserre suddenly felt a cold tingle run down her spine. She straightened, forcing a smile through a subtle shiver.

“Of course, Master. I plan to have them all live up to my legacy… and yours as well.”

She laughed awkwardly, sweat trailing down the side of her face as Oceana continued watching her with that piercing, knowing stare.

Staring at the two God Sparks tear into each other, Oceana couldn’t help but admire the display.

“Those are Sparks, right? Truly wonderful,” she murmured, eyes flicking between Kei M’s Resonant Shield and Silvie’s Scarf. Then her gaze shifted slightly. “What about Mia? Has she formed one yet?”

“No, she only awakened to cultivation recently,” Auserre replied. “She wouldn’t have formed one so quickly.”

“And Khenu?” Oceana asked cautiously, turning her eyes toward Kei Y as if already suspecting the answer from his current behavior.

“Uh… in all fairness, I’ve never formed one myself,” Auserre admitted. “So I’m not in any position to say why he hasn’t. But despite whatever it is he’s doing right now… he’s quite capable. I can… somewhat promise that.”

Kei Y, for his part, was suspended midair—hanging upside down in a position that defied common sense. His eyes glowed a faint, opaque hue, the distinct activation of hisKaleidoscope ocular skill visible even from a distance. As part of his training in Creation Force, Kei Y had constructed footholds in the air using rune strokes and implanted one foot into the construct to hold himself in place. Why he chose to be upside down? No one could really say.

Beside him floated the Vendor—though neither he nor Kei Y were speaking.

Both had their full attention fixed on the small panda cub nestled below them.

Dancing around the cub was the Shima Enaga—a bird of Kei Y’s own creation. Its rune-carved body fluttered around the panda in playful loops, its movements increasingly lifelike. The runes that formed its body had evolved from stiff symbols into a flowing network that now resembled organic blood vessels pulsing with vitality.

Auserre observed them for a long moment before muttering to herself,

“…He’s training creation force by watching his own creation play. That’s either brilliant or stupid—maybe both.”

Oceana tilted her head, watching the same scene.

“Either way, it’s working.”

Staring at the cub rolling around on the ground, Kei Y couldn’t help but feel a quiet fascination. The little creature treated the earth like its own personal playground—tumbling, flipping, and sliding with chaotic joy. Yet every movement was unintentionally destructive. The terrain shifted and split beneath it, the ground parting as though responding to the will of something far more powerful.

It was clear the cub had no control over its abilities. It wasn’t trying to wield its force—it simply was force. A living node of aether and earth, still too young to understand restraint.

“Really is interesting,” the Vendor said, watching alongside him. “It’s treating the ground like it’s water… just like those other creatures did in your zone.”

“Yeah,” Kei Y nodded slowly. “I wonder if I can learn Earth Force runes just by observing it.”

The Vendor gave him a sidelong glance. “Is that why you stole it?”

“Nah,” Kei Y replied without hesitation, eyes still fixed on the cub. “I just wanted one. It’s really cute.”

The Vendor stared at him for a moment longer, then looked away, muttering something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like “...damn lunatic.”

"You have no idea." Kei Y laughed.

Meanwhile, Kei Y’s Kaleidoscope eyes flickered with luminous patterns, each lens capturing and deconstructing the cub’s movements. As the earth rippled around the creature’s paws, invisible runes began to appear within Kei’s mind—stripped down, interpreted, and converted into raw structure.

He wasn’t just watching.

He was decoding.

Just like with every other rune system he had unraveled before, Kei knew he needed to grasp the underlying logic of the cub’s Force alignment. Not just what it did, but why it did it. Earth Force couldn’t be forced—it had to be understood, internalized, mirrored.

Only then could his aether replicate the force’s unique signature.

And onlythen could that signature be etched into a functional rune stroke—an executable program in the language of the world itself.

Like a programmer reverse-engineering a foreign script, Kei worked his way backward—one twitch, one aether pulse at a time.

“Come on,” he murmured softly, watching the cub stumble into a roll that sent a chunk of stone flying skyward. “Show me the syntax.”

“Khenu, Mia, can you two come here, please?” Oceana called out.

“Please? Since when are you so nice?” Auserre muttered under her breath, clearly not used to the softer tone from her master.

Oceana ignored her completely, keeping her gaze fixed on the two children as they approached.

“Yes, Grandmaster?” they both said in unison.

Oceana looked between them, then gestured toward the ongoing sparring match between Kei M and Silvie—both wielding their Sparks with impressive control.

“Have you two thought about what you’d like your Sparks to be?”

Both Khenu and Mia turned toward the battle, unable to hide the yearning in their eyes. Watching Kei M’s Resonant Shield ripple with power and Silvie’s thread-bound Scarf weave through battle with deadly grace, it was hard not to feel a bit lacking.

Sensing their silence, Oceana softened her tone slightly.

“Don’t feel bad. And don’t rush. A Spark is… well, it’s more than just a tool—it’s a reflection of you. It’s something you’ll carry into every battle, every breakthrough. It can be a weapon you favor… a skill you admire… even your favorite blanket—if that holds meaning to you.”

She paused, letting the words settle.

“It’s part of your identity. It’ll grow with you, evolve with you. So think carefully. It doesn’t have to be flashy or dramatic—just something true.”

Mia looked down, her brows furrowing in thought.

Kei Y himself was just as puzzled about how to proceed with forming his Spark. As he sat pondering, the Shima Enaga fluttered away from the cub and landed on his head, pecking at him repeatedly—perhaps offering its own kind of suggestion.

While the others pondered their paths forward, the days continued with rigorous training under Auserre and Oceana’s guidance. The Vendor spent more and more time with Kei Y, helping refine his use of Creation Force. To everyone’s surprise—but not his own—Kei Y advanced rapidly. Even before entering the temporal dungeon, he’d shown a knack for shaping other forces into distinct forms. Creation Force merely gave him a proper medium—one that allowed him to bring more vitality into whatever he constructed.

Additionally, Kei Y was making steady progress with Earth-aligned rune strokes. His Kaleidoscope eyes now revealed glimmering fragments of brown—signs of his growing comprehension of the Earth element’s structure and patterns.

Between sessions, Kei Y and Inpu frequently sparred, refining both their swordplay and rune-based combat. Inpu in particular worked to weave fortune and misfortune into his movements, using his Scale Force not just as a passive tool but as an active element of his fighting style. Kei Y, with his knack for runework and precision, often assisted him in combat rune training.

Eventually, Auserre took the time to speak with Inpu directly, offering insight into the weapon he now wielded.

“This scale is actually well-suited to you,” she said, tapping its edge with two fingers. “Just like you manipulate fortune and misfortune… this thing weighs life and death.”

She leaned back slightly. “The last cultivator who wielded it was a grim bastard. He called himself the ‘Path of Death’ or something melodramatic like that. Said the scale let him judge the sins of others. Truth, sin, fate, blah blah blah. Honestly, he lost me when he started chanting about moral burden and then started gurgling as I drowned him.”

Inpu blinked. “…You drowned him?”

“He was annoying.”

Despite her offhand delivery, Inpu felt a strange sense of peace holding the artifact. It didn’t feel foreign. It felt… right.

The weight of it in his hands was natural. Familiar.

There was a resonance between them—not just with the weapon, but with the meaning it carried. And while others might have seen it as a grim relic, to Inpu, it was something more.

A reflection of himself.

A scale—one that did not promise power, but demanded balance. And that, more than anything, was something he understood.

The final day before the tournament arrived, and the only preparation left was concealing their identities. It wasn’t necessary for all the kids, but for one of them—the former crown prince of the Amunar Kingdom—Auserre wasn’t about to take risks. Most wouldn’t recognize his face, but she wasn’t about to gamble on "most" unless Kei M decided otherwise.

Kei Y and Silvie already had their masks made, so Kei Y took on the task of carving new ones for Kei M, Mia, and Inpu. The designs were sleek and minimalistic: plain faces with no openings for the eyes, mouth, or ears. But of course, Mia wanted hers to be playful. She requested black and white koi fish that danced around her mask.

Kei Y took the opportunity to practice his Creation Force, trying to make the koi fish appear more lifelike. He cycled through dozens of failed prototypes, scattering discarded masks across Auserre’s floor. It got to the point where Oceana had to stop her student from strangling her grand student out of frustration.

But after several hours, Kei Y finally held up the completed mask. Mia’s eyes lit up with joy as she saw the koi fish swimming gently across the surface—animated, elegant, and alive. She hugged the mask to her chest like it was a treasure.

Then came Inpu’s request—one that earned him a solid knock to the head from Kei Y.

Inpu had always been self-conscious about his laugh. It had been mocked relentlessly growing up, with bullies giving him a nickname he never quite managed to shake. But now, standing on the verge of representing his kingdom, he chose to reclaim it—embrace it, even. He asked for a mask that reflected that name.

Kei Y stared at him in disbelief, sighed, and then got to work.

While it didn’t take as long as Mia’s intricate koi design, crafting Inpu’s mask still came with its challenges. But eventually, Kei Y finished—this one shaped deliberately.

The next morning, Emory arrived at a neutral rendezvous point to pick them up. Standing before him were five masked children, each with a presence all their own:

• A white mask adorned with drifting sakura blossoms.

• A mask pulsing with subtle green, reflecting the energy of nature.

• A sleek violet sheen that faintly echoed with sound.

• A koi fish mask, the black and white shapes gliding gently across the surface.

• And lastly...

“Yup,” Inpu said proudly, as if it were the coolest thing in the world.

“Okay then,” Emory said with a slight shrug. “Time to go and show your brilliance to all the kingdoms.”

And with that, they set off—joining the Soldier Class and Specialist Class teams also representing Amunar Kingdom. Among those groups, unfortunately, were some familiar and not-so-pleasant faces.