Veil of Aether

“Ke… Khenu!” Silvie shouted, her voice breaking as her whip clashed against her opponent’s blade.

The impact rang sharply through the air.

They were forced apart, sliding across the fractured arena floor.

Neither of them pressed the attack.

They both turned.

Wide-eyed.

“He actually lost…?”

“He actually lost…?”

Silvie and her opponent spoke at the same time, disbelief evident in their voices as they stared toward the center of the arena.

Silvie followed her opponent’s gaze.

And looked at Kei Y.

The battlefield around her was already transformed into a golden botanical expanse. Pollen drifted through the air like radiant dust, while thick vines wound across the ground between blooming flowers whose petals glowed with faint luminous veins.

She stood there breathing slightly heavier, draped in layered floral regalia. The hood of her robe unfurled slightly as luminous golden antlers formed along its frame, arching back from her head like a crown of living branches. Her whip rested at her side, its living strands threaded with new golden accents.

Above her, the Mythbloom Codex hovered open.

A massive ethereal golden hind loomed behind her, its radiant form towering over the battlefield like a silent guardian.

Across from her, her opponent steadied himself.

Shield raised.

Sword drawn.

Bruises darkened along his arm where her vines had struck.

He ignored her floral attire entirely.

His attention was fixed elsewhere.

His eyes were locked elsewhere.

Michael’s body hung limp.

The talismans that had once floated around him fell one by one, their runes flickering out as they struck the fractured stone.

With them, the swirling storm vortex collapsed.

The wind died.

Smoke rose faintly from his body.

Burned.

Scorched.

Remnants of lightning crawled weakly across his skin.

Behind him, once-white wings were charred black along the edges, feathers burned and curling inward from the heat.

Silvie followed her opponent’s gaze.

And looked at Kei Y.

His body knelt where he stood, one knee pressed into the fractured stone, head hanging low.

Sword slashes marked him from shoulder to waist, thin lines of blood tracing down his frame.

In one hand, he still held several torn feathers from Michael’s wings.

At his feet lay the broken halves of a windblade staff.

His sleeve guards were battered, cracked, nearly destroyed.

Yet even like that—

He had not fallen.

Despite his battered appearance and refusal to fall, Silvie was still shaken by what had occurred only moments earlier.

In truth, everyone present in the arena, and even those watching from outside, were still shaken.

Some had outright collapsed from fear.

Others, stronger in mind and will, struggled desperately to keep their sanity intact.

Several cultivators could be seen trying to regulate their aether, their breathing uneven as they fought to keep their cultivation from spiraling out of control.

The pressure that had erupted moments earlier had shaken them to their very core.

Only one person seemed completely unaffected.

Mia.

She continued pressing the attack without hesitation, her movements sharp and relentless as she drove her opponent backward.

Her opponent, by contrast, was barely holding himself together, his stance wavering as the shock of what had just happened threatened to pull his mind apart.

Yet Mia did not slow.

She simply kept advancing.

This scene had been set in motion by what had happened moments earlier.

Whack.

Michael’s head jerked violently as something struck him.

The sensation was painfully familiar.

He knew exactly what it was.

“You and that stupid brick…” he cursed, glaring up at Kei Y, who had just smacked him across the head while still keeping his face pressed firmly into the ground beneath his foot.

Kei Y didn’t look particularly concerned.

If anything, he seemed mildly annoyed.

“You’re still too chatty,” Kei Y said flatly, watching as Michael’s head slowly began phasing into the ground beneath his foot.

But Michael had no intention of letting that happen.

The moment the words left Kei Y’s mouth, a sword erupted from the ground beneath his chin.

Kei Y’s eyes widened.

He kicked off Michael's head and leapt backward just as the blade shot upward where his throat had been.

The instant the pressure lifted, Michael rolled across the ground and rose back to his feet, putting several meters between them.

But in what felt like a literal blink of an eye to Kei Y, the tip of a sword stopped mere centimeters from piercing his eyeball.

It had been far too fast for him to react.

At that distance, the system should have already registered his defeat.

Heavy emphasis on should have.

Kei Y was prepared.

Just as Michael silently hoped that, for once, the system might malfunction and allow him the sweet satisfaction of driving his blade through Kei Y’s skull—

A violent gust of wind exploded between them.

Michael was hurled backward.

He skidded across the stone before regaining his footing, only to see Kei Y standing where he had been moments earlier… calmly raising his middle finger.

“What the…?” Michael muttered.

His confusion only deepened when he looked down.

A talisman clung to the center of his chest.

The runes on the paper flickered weakly as they faded.

“When did you—?” Michael began.

“Worry less about when,” Kei Y replied.

“And worry more about what I’m about to do to you.”

The wind folded.

Kei Y appeared behind him.

Mid-swing.

Brick already descending toward the back of his head.

“Tsk.”

Michael didn’t waste time arguing.

A sword formed instantly in his free hand and stabbed backward toward Kei Y’s ribs.

Yet Kei Y didn’t slow.

He swung as if he hadn’t even noticed the blade.

That alone surprised Michael.

But what happened next shocked him far more than being blasted away by a brick.

He regained his footing and looked down at the hand he had used to stab Kei Y.

The sword was still there.

Yet he was certain that, just before Kei Y’s brick connected with his skull, the blade in his hand had vanished for a split second.

Michael frowned.

Across from him, Kei Y looked mildly annoyed.

“…So it’s not equipment?” he muttered.

The reason Kei Y hadn’t bothered dodging the stab was the same reason the Vendor once failed to notice his favorite knife going missing.

Kei Y had discovered he could slip his will into other people’s inventories and quietly rob them blind.

Naturally, he had tried to weaponize it.

If he could steal a weapon mid-fight, his opponent would be left confused, disarmed, and wide open.

Unfortunately, doing it even under normal conditions was difficult and mentally exhausting.

Doing it during a fight was far worse.

In truth, he had failed to fully take Michael’s sword.

The runes Kei Y relied on were designed to interact with theinventory system itself, manipulating the process of depositing and withdrawing items.

But Michael hadn’t withdrawn his sword from storage.

He had manifested it directly.

Kei Y had used the wrong set of runes.

For a brief moment, he had managed to slip the weapon out of Michael’s control.

But the system immediately corrected the error.

The sword vanished—

And returned straight back to Michael’s hand.

Kei Y clicked his tongue.

“Tsk.”

Wrong runes.

Spitting blood from his mouth, Michael glared at Kei Y, visibly upset.

“Stupid parlor tricks.”

“I would say so too,” Kei Y replied. “To think they allowed a Recruit-class fighter to smash you over the head repeatedly. It’s quite funny when you think about it.”

But even as he spoke, Kei Y suddenly darted backward, weaving from side to side as his instincts screamed at him.

Swords began manifesting all around him.

Blades formed in the air, thrusting toward him from every direction.

For those he found too difficult to dodge, the wind around him pulsed outward, blasting them away before they could reach him.

And that still wasn’t the end of it.

Michael surged forward.

His sword swung in smooth arcs that revealed true experience and mastery of combat. Each movement flowed into the next with terrifying efficiency.

It was so precise that Michael began cleaving straight through the currents of wind protecting Kei Y, severing the control Kei Y had over them.

He wasn’t just cutting at Kei Y.

He was cutting through theForce itself.

At the same time, Michael’s footwork was exceptional. He wove in and out of Kei Y’s movements, constantly shifting angles and closing distance, making Kei Y’s attempts to dodge increasingly difficult.

Even when Kei Y’s meridians pulsed with his physical cultivation technique, blurring his presence and making his movements harder to grasp—

Michael still tracked him.

Step for step.

Blade for blade.

It quickly became evident that relying on Breeze Force for his senses wouldn’t work.

Michael could cut through the wind itself, severing Kei Y’s connection to it.

Against an opponent with swordsmanship and footwork at this level, losing those senses was one of the worst scenarios Kei Y could face.

And it showed.

He was beginning to struggle.

Michael’s footwork was superior, and Kei Y’s own combat skills weren’t enough to disrupt the flow of his opponent’s swordsmanship.

Abandoning his reliance on the wind, Kei Y forced himself to rely on his natural senses instead.

They paled in comparison.

But they would have to do.

He managed to swing his brick a few times during brief openings. A small number of those strikes actually connected with Michael.

But his ability to dodge was steadily decreasing.

As he retreated and avoided another flurry of blades, Kei Y slipped several blank talismans from the guards on his sleeves.

With a thought, his will etched full runes across their surfaces.

Rune strokes alone wouldn’t be enough against an opponent like this.

Michael pressed forward relentlessly.

His sword carved through the air while more blades manifested around Kei Y, attacking from multiple directions.

Then—

One of the talismans floated upward.

It stopped directly in front of Michael’s face.

The paper flashed.

Before he could react, flames erupted from the talisman, engulfing him in an explosive burst of fire.

Michael reacted instantly.

His blade flashed and cut straight through the talisman.

But the moment his foot touched the ground again—

It sank.

His footing collapsed as the stone beneath him gave way.

“What!?”

Confusion appeared on his face.

“Good job, Olly,” Kei Y said.

The ground split open as Olly shot upward from beneath the arena floor, landing directly on top of Kei Y’s head.

Kei Y caught him in a spiral of wind and swept him away to the edge of the arena where the fighting wouldn’t reach him.

Seeing the opportunity, Kei Y immediately threw several more talismans toward Michael.

Lightning answered.

Bolts crashed down from above, slamming into Michael’s position.

At the same moment, Kei Y pulled several throwing orbs from his sleeve guards.

These were different from the ones he had used earlier in the tournament.

Each orb had been crafted with Pristine Aether infused in them.

He crushed them in his hands.

Petals of Tideborne Eclipse Force bloomed from his closed fists, spreading across his body as the energy flowed through him and began sealing his wounds.

But before Kei Y could take comfort in his wounds closing, a sword swung down from above, aiming to decapitate him, while another manifested from below, rising to slice through his torso.

Already annoyed by the constant barrage of blades, Kei Y jumped and tucked his legs, flipping through the air to avoid both strikes.

“Creative,” Michael scoffed, adjusting his stance, “but not good enough.”

He shifted his footing, preparing to alter the trajectory of his next wave of attacks.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

But before he could move—

A cyan-blue tail lashed across his throat.

The impact was violent.

Michael was sent hurtling across the arena, his body smashing into the ground again and again, each bounce leaving a fresh crater in the stone before he finally skidded to a stop.

From the stands, the Jade Emperor watched the scene unfold, a vein bulging at his temple.

“I refuse to believe there’s another one…”

Nearby, Wukong’s mouth hung open. A piece of the peach he had just bitten fell from his lips.

“He was holding back against me?”

Izanami’s eye twitched as she struggled to steady herself.

“What is it with boys and turning into these creatures…?”

Aide Solomon shot up from his seat, clapping excitedly.

“That’s it, little boy! Whack him again!” he shouted, cheering Kei Y on.

King David let out a heavy sigh and rubbed his forehead.

“Unbelievable…”

Murmurs spread rapidly through the arena.

“First the Hare…”

“Then the Fellhorn hybrid…”

“And now this?”

“How many creatures can he transform into?”

Across the battlefield, Michael struggled to push himself up, one hand clutching his throat.

Standing before him was Kei Y.

Or rather—

What Kei Y had become.

His body now resembled Zeph’s—the cyan-blue Chitter Monkey Apex Boss.

His frame had shifted into a lean, agile build, every movement carrying a light, elastic quality. A sleek, wind-striped tail flicked behind him, occasionally striking the ground with restless energy. His ears were slightly elongated, and his hair flowed upward in windswept strands as if the air itself refused to settle around him.

Above his head, a crown of wind swirled like a living halo, currents spiraling endlessly in a tight orbit.

The joints in his body bent with unnatural freedom, allowing his limbs to move at angles that would have been impossible before. Every motion felt lighter, faster, more precise.

Reflexes sharpened.

With a shift of his weight, compressed bursts of wind formed beneath his feet, letting him vault, redirect momentum mid-motion, or change direction instantly without losing speed.

In this form, Kei Y moved less like a human fighter—

And more like a creature born from the wind itself.

In one hand he held a calligraphy brush.

In the other—

The brick.

Without giving Michael time to recover, several blank talismans hovered in the air.

The wind folded.

Kei Y vanished.

A heartbeat later he appeared above Michael, swinging his brick downward. The weapon was wrapped in dense Zephyr Wind, the currents spiraling violently around its surface.

Michael reacted instantly.

His sword flashed upward, aiming to sever the Force within the wind itself.

But this time—

It didn’t work.

The Zephyr Wind held.

Michael clicked his tongue and immediately activated a movement skill, his body blurring sideways just as the brick crashed down where he had stood.

The impact shook the arena.

Stone shattered beneath Kei Y’s strike.

The Zephyr Wind surrounding the brick exploded outward in a violent burst, blasting Michael backward across the ground.

The moment Michael landed, the stone beneath his feet ignited with glowing runes.

Red.

Blue.

Michael barely glanced down.

As if he had already expected it.

Around him, a skill activated.

A vortex of swords erupted from the ground, spiraling around his body like a storm of steel. The blades tore through the glowing runes, slicing them apart before the Ember-Ash Viper and Frostbane Viper could fully manifest.

The traps collapsed.

Yet Kei Y didn’t seem bothered.

While Michael was occupied defending himself, Kei Y had already begun writing.

His calligraphy brush moved through the air, ember-ash runes forming near the floating talismen.

“Macro: Deconstruct.”

This was the result of his training with Zeus.

The runes expanded outward,.

Michael immediately felt it.

[Macro: Deconstruct]

Description:

A high-level rune macro that analyzes complex or hybrid Force structures dismantles them into their core Major Force components.

Composite Forces are broken apart into their foundational elements. Secondary aspects and derivative properties are extracted from the original structure and condensed into rune fragments.

These fragments are automatically inscribed onto nearby blank talismans, where they are refined and amplified into enhanced rune expressions.

The remaining Major Force component is stabilized into a purer and more concentrated state, often increasing its intensity and efficiency compared to the original hybrid force.

This technique effectively converts unstable or mixed Forces into reusable components, allowing the user to harvest, refine, and repurpose battlefield energies for future techniques.

Fire separated from ash.

Ember separated from flame.

Fragments of those elements flowed into the blank talismans Kei Y had left floating in the air.

The pure Fire Force that remained burned calmly at the center of the formation, its flames hotter and more stable than the original hybrid force had been.

One by one, the talismans ignited as new runes carved themselves into the paper.

Sharper.

Denser.

Stronger.

Michael’s eyes narrowed.

Without giving Michael time to react, the newly formed talismans ignited.

The Ember Talismans burned first.

The Ash Talismans followed.

From them, two arrows formed in the air.

One blazing like a condensed lance of ember-fire.

The other dark and drifting, ash spiraling around its shaft like smoke given form.

Shinma Edgecraft seized them.

The arrows rocketed toward Michael like twin comets.

Ember and ash tore through the air.

Michael barely had time to react.

His eyes widened as he planted his feet, bracing himself for the impact.

The first arrow struck.

The second followed a heartbeat later.

And the moment the projectiles connected—

Divine Aftershock activated.

A pulse of divine force erupted outward from the point of impact.

The shockwave expanded in a circular blast, staggering the surrounding air itself.

Shimmering fragments of radiant force rippled outward like scattered feathers of light as the echo of the strike reverberated across the arena.

The impact was so violent it drew attention away from the other fights across the arena.

For a brief moment, all eyes turned toward the explosion of ember and ash.

But the sharp clang of metal cutting through the chaos shattered any expectation Kei Y had that the attack had finished his opponent.

Hope lasted only a heartbeat longer.

Then—

From within the smoke, something burst outward.

Brilliant white wings.

Pure.

Radiant.

They tore through the haze as sparks of light scattered across the air.

A moment later, a voice followed—one Kei Y would describe as thoroughly irritating.

“Tsk… I’m getting really sick and tired of you,” Michael growled.

Kei Y tilted his head.

“Aw,” he said sympathetically. “Is the poor Specialist getting bullied by a mere Recruit?”

He placed a hand over his heart in mock sorrow.

“You poor baby.”

Michael was too annoyed to respond.

As the smoke cleared, a radiant shield formed around his arm, its surface glowing with layered runic light.

His wings unfurled fully behind him.

They beat once, preparing to launch him into the sky—

But before he could lift off.

A voice.

Far too excited.

“ZAA FOOT!”

“…Huh?”

Michael faltered, bewildered.

He turned toward Kei Y, only to see him floating midair, one leg lifted as he stomped down.

Michael’s confusion lasted only a fraction of a second.

Then he looked up.

A colossal ethereal foot descending from above.

It was massive—formed entirely from swirling Zephyr Wind, its shape defined by spiraling currents and roaring pressure.

The ridiculousness of the sight barely registered before it came crashing down.

The arena shook.

The gigantic wind-forged foot slammed Michael straight into the ground, driving him deep into the fractured stone beneath it.

Dust and shattered rock burst outward in a violent shockwave.

When the pressure finally faded, Michael lay there in the crater.

For a moment, he didn’t move.

He just stared upward, completely mentally exhausted from the relentless fight.

Giggling at the time he had bought for himself, Kei Y summoned a new Windblade staff into his hand.

Crafted from just plain wood.

He pointed it toward the lingering pure Fire Force that still burned and let the staff absorb it.

The flames barely it—

And the staff immediately began to burn.

The fire threatened to devour it entirely.

Kei Y reacted quickly.

“Aether Control.”

Lines of orange aether burst across the staff’s surface, reinforcing the structure.

For a brief moment it held.

Then the wood blackened.

Cracked.

And burned away completely.

Kei Y blinked.

“…That’s new.”

He sounded pleasantly surprised.

The fire left behind after Macro: Deconstruct was far stronger than anything he had produced before.

Even stripped of the Ember and Ash components, what remained was a purer, more concentrated Fire Force.

Stronger.

“Weird,” Kei Y muttered.

“But okay.”

His Spark appeared in his hand.

The weapon shifted smoothly, morphing from a parasol into a new Windblade staff.

This time, when he guided the Fire Force into it—

The weapon held.

Flames wrapped around the staff.

Across the arena, Michael still lay in the crater from the wind stomp.

“You’re just going to lie there?” Kei Y called out mockingly.

“You suck,” Michael replied flatly.

Despite the insult, Kei Y didn’t relax.

Seeing the radiant shield reforming and Michael’s wings spreading again only told him one thing.

This already brutal fight was about to get worse.

Not wanting to give him time to fully recover, Kei Y raised the Windblade staff.

A massive fireball roared from the tip of the staff and tore across the arena toward Michael.

Michael glanced at it.

Annoyed.

Kei Y barely had time to blink.

The fireball had just split apart.

Michael was nowhere to be seen.

Then—

A golden flash of light slashed down in front of his face.

Kei Y jerked his head back as the blade carved through the air, slicing several strands of hair from his fringe.

For a brief moment he stared in confusion at the fireball behind him, now falling apart into two perfectly clean halves.

He didn’t get the chance to think any further.

Something slammed into him.

The impact drove him straight into the ground.

Pain exploded through his skull as his vision blurred.

When Kei Y forced his eyes open again, the sky above him had changed.

Hovering where he had just been floating—

Was Michael.

His radiant wings were fully spread, blazing with white-gold light.

The shield gleamed in his hand, still vibrating from the strike he had just delivered.

The blow that had smashed Kei Y into the arena floor.

Kei Y didn’t have much time to recover from the blunt force.

The fur along his arms rippled.

Through Aspect Manifestation: Creatureborne Adaptation, he had inherited Zeph’s traits. The moment the transformation settled into his body, his senses sharpened dramatically.

Reflexes rose.

His dexterity rose so sharply it almost felt unnatural.

And it was fortunate it had.

Because the moment his awareness sharpened, a storm of sword slashes closed in around him.

Michael did not give him a moment to breathe.

Golden arcs carved through the air from every direction.

Kei Y pushed his senses to their absolute limit.

He twisted.

Turned.

Bent his body in ways that would have been impossible in his human form.

The transformation pushed him into a more primal rhythm. His movements became acrobatic, almost animalistic. Kicks and punches flowed naturally as he twisted through the air, using his tail and compressed bursts of wind to redirect himself mid-motion.

It looked less like a fight—

And more like a chaotic aerial dance.

Even so, the pressure was immense.

Michael’s swordsmanship left almost no room for error.

Yet Kei Y did not panic.

Instead, he leaned into the pressure.

The heightened dexterity granted by Zeph’s form gave him a rare opportunity.

By forcing his body to react at its limits, he was effectively tempering his own control.

Every near miss.

Every narrow dodge.

Every successful counter.

It refined his movements further.

Little by little, his body began adjusting to the new threshold.

And between those increasingly precise movements—

Kei Y finally began finding space to strike back.

In fact, it was starting to get to his head.

Michael thrust forward with his sword.

Kei Y barely managed to sidestep the blade as it shot past his ribs.

In the same motion, his foot slammed down onto the flat of the sword.

The strike pinned the weapon straight into the arena floor.

Michael’s eyes stayed tranquil.

Before he could react, Kei Y pivoted on the trapped blade like a fulcrum.

His body spun.

The second foot came around in a sharp arc—

And slammed into Michael’s side.

The impact forced Michael to skid several steps across the stone.

But Kei Y didn’t give him time to recover.

The air warped.

Large ethereal hands and feet materialized around Michael, crashing down from different angles just like before.

Michael reacted instantly, his wings flapping in controlled bursts as he slipped between the descending strikes.

Palms.

Fists.

Massive stomping feet.

Each one barely missed him as he maneuvered through the barrage.

Yet Kei Y still wasn’t finished.

Blank talismans began appearing around Michael, drifting through the air like silent observers.

Then Kei Y lifted his brush.

“Macro: Deconstruct.”

This time he didn’t target a single Force.

He targeted as many as he could.

Every Force Alignment he had used throughout the fight began unraveling at once.

The composite forces shattered apart.

Pulsewind.

Zephyr.

Eldertide.

Frostbane.

Glacial.

Ebb & Flow.

Stormwind.

Stone.

Each one peeled away from its hybrid structure and condensed into rune fragments that etched themselves across the floating blank talismans.

The papers began to glow.

One after another they ignited with power.

Massive arrows formed from each talisman.

The arrows hung in the air for only a heartbeat before launching toward Michael.

Divine Aftershock triggered within every projectile.

Each arrow carried a trailing echo of force that pulsed outward behind it, leaving shimmering waves in the air as they streaked forward.

Michael looked at them.

His expression barely changed.

He stepped once.

Then gently flapped his wings.

The arrows tore past him.

Each one missed him by inches as he slipped through the storm of projectiles with effortless control.

As if he simply wasn’t impressed.

Behind the attack, thepure forces left behind by Deconstruct gathered around Kei Y’s staff.

Wind.

Ice.

Water.

Fire.

Lightning.

Earth.

They spiraled together, feeding into the weapon.

The Windblade Staff began to change.

The surface warped into a swirling kaleidoscope of shifting energies, each force weaving through the others in spiraling currents.

Kei Y swung the staff forward.

Blasts of wind erupted from the weapon, but now each gust carried fragments of the forces swirling within it.

Fire burned through the currents.

Ice crystallized along their edges.

Lightning snapped through the spiraling air.

Michael simply continued moving.

His wings beat softly.

And he kept dodging.

Taking advantage of Michael’s relaxed movement, Kei Y folded the surrounding wind currents inward.

The blasts Michael had just dodged vanished—

Only to reappear instantly in front of him.

They detonated at point-blank range.

The force slammed Michael out of the air.

Michael reacted immediately, crossing his wings in front of himself, the impact driving him downward toward the arena floor.

But when he landed—

Kei Y was already there waiting.

The Kaleidoscope Field around him spun.

Kei Y didn’t hesitate.

He rushed forward.

Punches.

Kicks.

Elbows.

His strikes came in rapid succession as he tried to inflict as much damage as possible before Michael could stabilize.

But the real purpose of the exchange was hidden.

Between those strikes, Kei Y’s Kaleidoscope field flickered repeatedly.

White rune strokes slipped quietly into Michael’s wings.

Most of them.as they were nearly invisible against the radiant feathers.

The moment he finished, Kei Y kicked off Michael’s chest and flipped backward, landing several meters away.

He bounced lightly on the balls of his feet, tail swaying behind him.

A little too pleased with himself.

“What do you think of that? Don’t play with me, I’ll put my monkey paws on you, talk to me nicely.”

Silence followed.

Then—

“Monkeys don’t have paws.”

The voice came from directly beside him.

Kei Y froze.

Michael was standing there.

Right next to him.

Kei Y’s eyes widened.

He folded into the wind instantly, vanishing and reappearing several meters away.

But Michael was already there.

Walking toward him calmly.

Kei Y shifted again.

Another gust.

Another reposition.

Michael appeared again.

Unhurried.

Step by step.

As if the distance between them simply didn’t matter.

Michael stopped walking.

Without urgency, he raised his sword into the air.

With the tip of the blade, he slowly traced a perfect circle around himself.

The motion was calm.

The blade carved faint lines of light into the air as the circle completed.

“Cast Away… Pride.”

Nothing happened.

At least—

Nothing visible.

To anyone watching, it might have seemed as though Michael had simply lifted his sword for no reason.

But Kei Y’s senses were already stretched to their limit.

And now—

They were beginning to fail him entirely.

The closer Michael walked, the more suffocating the pressure became.

Each step felt heavier than the last.

Across the arena, Silvie’s opponent suddenly broke away from their clash.

“Michael…” he called out cautiously.

“Don’t you think that’s a bit much?”

He hesitated before adding,

“Are you sure about this?”

Michael didn’t stop walking.

“It should be fine.”

His voice remained calm.

“Regardless of what I think of this kid…”

He took another step forward.

“…he has earned the right to this much.”

As he continued approaching, faint radiance began gathering around him.

His sword glowed softly.

His shield followed.

A thin layer of white-gold light began forming across both weapons.

“Are you ready?” Michael asked calmly.

The question went unanswered.

Kei Y wasn’t listening anymore.

His mind was collapsing under the pressure.

His senses, already pushed to their limits, began to suffocate beneath the invisible weight pressing down on him. Sweat poured from his body, dripping from his chin and forming a small puddle beneath his feet.

The last thing Kei Y clearly remembered was Michael gently raising his sword.

Then—

A deafening bang.

His head slammed violently into the arena barrier.

The impact rattled his bones.

Kei Y stumbled forward weakly as he forced himself back onto his feet. Blood streamed from his forehead, running down his face like a waterfall beneath his sweat-soaked hair, the crimson liquid sliding across his eyes and blurring his vision.

Michael watched him for a moment.

Then he turned away.

“You did much better than I anticipated,” he said evenly.

“I can at least respect that, especially for a Recruit.”

He began walking away.

…

…

…

Then he stopped.

Michael froze.

His eyes widened.

For the first time since the fight began—

Fear flickered across his face.

Across the arena, his teammates had frozen as well.

So had their opponents.

Every spectator in the crowd had suddenly gone still.

Some staggered.

Others collapsed outright.

Even the strongest among them struggled to remain standing as a suffocating pressure flooded the arena.

No matter how powerful they were—

Every one of them felt it.

The source of that pressure?

A voice.

Childishly excited.

“HAIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!! (づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ”

It came from Kei Y.

Who was still stumbling unsteadily on his feet.

Silvie startled and looked over. Around Kei Y, the aether seemed far more excited and happy than it normally was, swirling around him with unusual energy. It felt far more lively and eager than the aether surrounding her and Mia.

Inside Kei Y’s mind, three figures stood within a strange, quiet space.

Two of them were already awake.

They stared at the third figure.

Who had just opened his eyes groggily.

“Oh shit.”

They both said it at the same time.

The third figure rubbed his eyes sleepily, stretching like someone who had just woken from a long nap.

“Hmmm…”

He blinked.

Then looked around with wide-eyed fascination.

“Ooooh… what’s all this stuff?”

He spun slowly in place, staring at everything around him.

“Force… Aether…”

His eyes sparkled.

“Is this magic?”

(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

The two other figures exchanged a look.

“Well,” one sighed, “this was bound to happen eventually.”

“Would’ve been better if we were more prepared for it,” the other added.

The newly awakened one finally noticed them.

“Hmmm…?”

His face lit up.

“Oh! (Cyan) Oi! (Orange)”

He pointed excitedly.

“Oi You’re already here!”

Then he looked at the other one.

“Cy! You too!”

(⁀ᗢ⁀)

The two figures smiled.

“Hey, Vi (Violet),” Orange said softly.

“How do you feel?”

“Did you have a good nap?” Cyan asked.

They both reached over and gently rubbed his head.

Violet tilted his head slightly.

“Hmmm…”

(o^▽^o)

Cyan glanced toward Orange.

“Hey, Cy,” Orange said, nodding toward the outside world.

“You go. I’ll keep him company and help him fall back asleep before he becomes a calamity.”

Cyan rubbed the back of his neck.

“Hmmm… mind if I switch over to my own aether for a bit?”

He stretched lazily.

“I think I’ve got a pretty good grasp of yours and your abilities now.”

He paused thoughtfully.

“But since we started this dungeon using your force alignment, I’ll keep using it for a little while longer.”

A small grin appeared on his face.

“And I have to admit…”

He glanced outward.

“I really like your Aspect Manifestation: Creatureborne Adaptation.”

“That one’s fun.”

Orange chuckled softly.

“Figures.”

He then turned toward Violet and crouched beside him.

“Hey buddy,” he said warmly.

“How about I tell you all the fun things that happened while you were asleep?”

Violet’s eyes sparkled with excitement.

Outside Kei Y’s mind—

“Auserre…” Oceanna asked quietly.

There was hesitation in her voice.

Auserre didn’t even hesitate to respond.

“Master, I swear on my cultivation that I genuinely have no idea what just happened.”

The vow left her lips without hesitation.

The moment the words were spoken—

Reality rippled.

An immense wave of power spread outward from her oath, crossing worlds and passing through layers of space like a silent shockwave.

The disturbance traveled far beyond the arena.

Across countless realms.

In distant universes, powerful cultivators suddenly lifted their heads.

“Hmm?”

“Which Divine Realm cultivator just swore on their cultivation?”

Another voice answered.

“Judging from the strength of that vow… they must be terrifyingly powerful.”

Elsewhere, another figure frowned slightly.

“That oath carried conviction. Whoever made it… truly meant it.”

............

The suffocating pressure vanished instantly.

The oppressive weight that had frozen the arena disappeared like a storm suddenly breaking.

Kei Y’s unsteady steps stabilized.

The blood still running down his face slowed.

And when he lifted his head—

Something about the way he stood felt… different.

“Oh?”

Kei Y tilted his head slightly.

“Why do you look so scared?” he asked casually.

He straightened his posture.

His eyes were different now.

Where they once burned orange—

They now glowed with a deep, steadycyan.

“Did something happen?” he asked.

Michael swallowed.

“Um…”

His composure cracked.

The pressure he had felt earlier still lingered in the back of his mind.

Michael tried to steady his breathing.

It didn’t work.

His nerves refused to settle.

Slowly, almost mechanically, he raised his sword and shield and brought them into a defensive stance.

He was bracing himself.

Across from him, Kei Y simply watched.

Michael didn’t hesitate any longer.

With a sharp breath, he forced his aura outward, discarding every restraint he could afford to abandon.

“Cast Away.”

Radiant force erupted around him as he elevated himself into the highest state he could reach.

Kei Y merely looked up.

His eyes fractured.

The irises split apart into countless tiny facets, each fragment catching the light like shards of glass.

They resembled compound eyes.

Luckily, the change came just in time.

In that exact moment, he caught a glimpse of Michael’s movement.

Kei Y snapped both arms upward.

Clang.

Michael’s sword struck his guard—

And stopped.

“What the—?”

Michael froze in shock.

He had expected the strike to cleave straight through Kei Y’s arms.

Instead, it felt as though he had slammed his blade into something obscenely hard.

His eyes dropped to Kei Y’s forearms.

A clear, crystalline exoskeleton had formed across them.

The surface shimmered faintly, layered like living armor.

Michael’s gaze slowly lifted to Kei Y’s face.

And what stared back at him made his breath catch.

Those eyes.

Hundreds of tiny facets reflected the arena back at him.

“What… are you?” Michael stammered.

Kei Y’s body continued changing.

Segments of hardened exoskeleton spread across his shoulders and torso, interlocking plates forming a sleek, armored frame. His physique grew leaner and sharper, his limbs elongating slightly as his joints adjusted into a new structure built for explosive movement.

Thin sensory filaments extended from the sides of his head.

Antennae.

They twitched slightly as they tasted the air.

Then—

Two curved mandibles unfolded slowly from the sides of his jaw.

The transformation finished.

Kei Y rolled his shoulders once.

“Forgive me for not asking if you’re ready,” he said calmly.

“You really live up to your reputation.”

Before anyone could even process what they were seeing—

Kei Y suddenly screeched.

……

……

……

All the ambient aether in the arena vanished.

Every trace of it.

Gone.

The Vendor nearly choked on his own spit.

“Did he just turn into—”

“Don’t look at me,” Auserre cut in immediately. “I have no idea where he would’ve come across one of those.”

Oceanna tilted her head slightly.

“Does he need to come across what he transforms into?”

Her gaze drifted upward as if she were looking far beyond the arena.

“Still… a Godveil Ant.”

Her voice lowered slightly.

“To think he would manifest a species like that… and the Creation Force variant as well.”

Her eyes lingered on Kei Y.

“I wonder where he could have possibly encountered that creature.”

The Vendor slowly followed her gaze upward.

“…He wouldn’t have somehow reached the Ninth Expanse, would he?”

Kei Y shifted his stance slightly.

Then winced.

“...Tsk.”

He rubbed the underside of his feet briefly.

“And my ass still hurts.”

He glanced down at his new body.