Chapter 41 - 9-Star Breakthrough
The Pure Aether Crystals were stacked neatly on the kitchen table, buzzing with enough raw energy to destroy half the buildings in the area.
Holden poked one with his finger. It vibrated like a tuning fork and sent a pulse up his arm.
"Yeah, can’t use these here," he muttered.
The Aegis Ward was powerful, but it wasn’t designed to contain explosive energy surges. If he tried to absorb aether crystals inside a residential house, the ward would either trip its safety lockdown and trap him inside, or worse, fail entirely and turn the house into a crater.
Neither option sounded great.
He scooped the crystals into a small insulated pouch, clipped his Elite Training Pass to his jacket, and headed out.
The Gravity Center was hidden behind the advanced training halls, past a gate that most students never bothered looking at. The path was lined with warning signs in bold red letters.
AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY.
MINIMUM RANK 2 REQUIRED FOR UNSUPERVISED ENTRY.
FACILITY MANAGEMENT RESERVES THE RIGHT TO REJECT ANY APPLICANT.
Holden walked through the gate like he owned the place.
The building itself was squat and angular, made of dark gray reinforced concrete. It had no windows and only one heavy door at the front with a small reception window built into the wall beside it.
Through the window, he could see a desk covered in coffee cups and an old man sitting in it with his feet on the desk.
The man had messy gray hair, a wrinkled uniform and a coffee mug that said "I Survived The Dimensional War And All I Got Was This Lousy Mug" in faded letters..
Holden was about to knock when a familiar voice rang out from the side of the building.
"You can’t just ignore me! Do you know who my father is?"
Holden turned.
Draven stood near a side door, his face flushed red, waving a handful of credit chips at a small intercom panel. Two of his cronies stood beside him looking deeply uncomfortable.
"My father is Lord Valcrest! He sits on the Academy Oversight Board! I demand access to a private gravity room!"
The intercom crackled with a long, slow sigh that seemed to last a full ten seconds.
"Do I look like I care who your father is, kid?" The voice coming through the speaker was the same old man behind the window. "Read the sign. Rank 2 minimum. You’re Rank 1. Come back when you’ve earned it."
"I’ll pay triple the standard rate! Quadruple!"
Another sigh. Even longer this time.
"Kid. I’ve been running this facility for twenty-three years. I’ve had generals try to bribe me. I’ve had council members threaten my pension. I once had a Rank 4 instructor offer me a vacation home in the coastal districts. You know what I told all of them?"
Draven seethed. "What?"
"No. Now go away before I file a harassment complaint."
Draven’s hand clenched around the credit chips. His knuckles went white.
"Why you... you’re just a glorified janitor! You can’t talk to me like that!"
"Watch me."
Draven looked ready to start punching the intercom. His cronies glanced at each other and moved away, clearly trying to distance themselves from the mess they knew he was about to make.
Holden walked up to the main window and knocked twice.
The old man behind the desk gave Holden a slow, tired look. He had worked there so long that he’d seen so many students do stupid things over the years that he just didn’t care anymore.
"How can I help you?"
Holden pulled out his Elite Training Pass and held it against the glass.
The old man’s eyes dropped to the pass. He squinted. Then he sat up straight for the first time, his feet coming off the desk.
"Where did you get this?"
"Instructor Vespera."
"Huh."
He looked at Holden differently now.
The intercom crackled again.
"Hey! I was here first!" Draven shouted, looking very angry. "This is ridiculous! I’m a Valcrest! He’s probably forged that pass! Check the registry!"
Holden turned to Draven with a patient smile.
"Draven. You were just rejected by a man who hasn’t moved from that chair since the Clinton administration. Maybe take the hint."
"Don’t you dare speak to me! I’ll have your disciple status revoked! I’ll find a way!"
"Careful, Draven. If you cry any harder you’ll flood the lobby."
Draven made a sound like a teakettle about to explode.
The old man watched this exchange with slowly widening eyes. Then he looked at Holden.
"You the one who got Vespera’s disciple badge? The whole courtyard’s been buzzing about it."
"Guilty."
The old man grunted. He stood up, his knees cracking loudly, and walked slowly to the main door. He pushed it open and looked at Holden with something that might have been the ghost of respect.
"Name’s Barnaby. I run this place. Vespera doesn’t hand out disciple badges to just anyone. She handed one to a Rank 1 student, which means either she’s lost her mind or you’re something special."
"Probably both."
Barnaby let out a short laugh. It was a surprising sound, probably the first time in years that he’d expressed any kind of positive emotion.
"I like you. Come on."
He waved Holden inside, completely ignoring Draven.
Draven stood frozen in the courtyard, his mouth opening and closing like a fish. His cronies were already walking away, pretending they had never been associated with him.
Barnaby led Holden down a short hallway lined with heavy steel doors. Each door had a number and a rank classification stamped into the metal.
"Standard rooms go up to three times normal gravity," Barnaby explained, speaking in a monotone voice he’d clearly used for every student before. "Advanced rooms go up to six. Instructors use the eight-times rooms. But since you’re carrying Vespera’s pass and you’ve got the guts to backtalk that Valcrest kid, I’m going to do you a favor."
He stopped at the last door on the left. This one was different. The metal had a faint shimmer to it, and the rank classification read RANK 2 EXTREME.
"This is our extreme chamber. Goes up to twelve times normal gravity. Usually reserved for Rank 2 students who are preparing for breakthrough attempts. It’s got reinforced walls, energy dampeners, and a failsafe that’ll cut the gravity if your vitals drop too low."
He handed Holden a small keycard.
"Two hours max. Don’t die in there. I don’t like paperwork."
"Appreciate it."
"Yeah, yeah. Get in there."
Clang.
The door sealed shut behind Holden.
The room was small. Maybe four meters square. The only light came from a single panel in the ceiling. A control box was built into the wall, equipped with a single slider and a digital display.
The display read: GRAVITY: 1.0x
Holden rolled his shoulders and set the pouch of Pure Aether Crystals on the floor.
He looked at the slider.
He pushed it all the way to the end.
The display flickered.
GRAVITY: 12.0x
The room didn’t change visually. But the moment the gravity activated, Holden felt it.
His knees buckled slightly, though he managed to stay on his feet. It felt like he was wearing a weighted vest that covered every inch of his body. His legs felt like they were made of lead.
His Iron-Body Tempering kicked in immediately. His bones held. His muscles locked into place. But the pressure was relentless, pushing down on him from every angle.
He straightened up slowly.
"Okay," he breathed. "This is the real deal."
He sat down cross-legged on the floor. The gravity tried to fold him in half. His core muscles screamed in protest. He held his position through pure stubbornness.
He pulled the pouch open.
Six Pure Aether Crystals. Each one buzzing with concentrated military-grade energy. Together, they contained enough raw power to blow a hole through a city block.
Most people absorbed aether crystals slowly. Carefully. Over days or weeks, with trained medics standing by in case the energy destabilized.
Holden wasn’t most people.
He picked up the first crystal and popped it into his mouth like a piece of candy.
The energy hit his stomach like a lit match hitting gasoline.
His 1,000x multiplier caught it instantly.
[Ding!]
[Foreign energy detected.]
[Multiplier active: 1,000x]
[Processing... processing...]
The explosive force that should have torn through his body like a wildfire got grabbed, compressed, and folded into his cells with mechanical precision. There was no chaos or danger. He just sucked all the power in without any trouble
He ate the second crystal.
Then the third.
Then the fourth.
His body was a furnace now. Heat poured off his skin in visible waves. The gravity room’s temperature spiked. Sweat evaporated the moment it formed.
Fifth crystal.
His muscles were contracting so hard they felt like steel cables being wound tighter. His bones vibrated with dense, compressed energy. Something deep inside him was building. Pressure on top of pressure. The gravity crushing him from the outside and the aether energy expanding him from the inside.
Sixth crystal.
He swallowed it.
Everything stopped for a single heartbeat.
Then it all released at once.
BOOM.
A shockwave exploded from his chest, slamming into the walls of the chamber. The reinforced metal groaned. The energy dampeners flared to life, eating the excess force. The lights flickered wildly.
[Ding!]
[Energy absorption complete]
[Breakthrough detected]
[Rank 1 (8-Star) > Rank 1 (9-Star)]
[You have reached the absolute peak of the freshman level.]
Holden opened his eyes.
The twelve-times gravity still pressed down on him. It still felt heavy. But his body was holding it effortlessly now.
He flexed his hand.
The air in front of his fingers crackled.
He stood up. The gravity tried to push him back down. He ignored it.
"Nine stars," he said quietly.
He looked at the door.
Time to go home.