The Free Abyss — the Sanctuary of Liberation]
[The sky is surreal, painted in impossible colors. The Devia candidates lounge in altered space-time thrones. Banjo, Jason, Eve Maid, Jairak, Eugene, Androsha... all brimming with their new Devia gifts.]
They laugh. They float. They flex metaphysical muscles.
But Klexis?
He sits on a suspended stone slab, arms crossed, a cold expression etching into his usually fiery face. His hammer leans quietly at his side.
---
Klexis (after a long silence):
> "You ever get everything you asked for… and feel like you lost something real?"
Eugene (spinning a fractal lightning cube):
> "Bro... Devia is fire. Like...literally. My attacks bend emotion and logic now. Why you brooding?"
Klexis (ignores the joke):
> "Devia's clean. Too clean. Like it shaved off something it didn't understand."
Banjo (drinking from a floating card-shaped mug):
> "Ooooh here we go. Mr. Hammer Heart about to drop one of his 'What is truth?' speeches again."
Eve Maid (chuckling):
> "Careful, Klexis. You're starting to sound like someone with... resistance affinity."
(She winks.)
---
Klexis stands up, and when he speaks again, there's no cockiness — only clarity laced with doubt.
---
Klexis:
> "When my father said he'd expose the flaws of Avia, I believed him.
But what he really did… was patch over those flaws with something too efficient.
Avia had flaws, yeah. But those flaws?
That struggle to manifest? That need for self-awareness?
That's what made it real. That's what taught us."
---
Jairak (leaning against a spire of bending time):
> "Klex... bro... it's not that deep. The old system was broken. This one flows with our truths."
---
Klexis (shaking his head):
> "That's just it, Jair. Whose truth are we talking about?
Devia flows… but it doesn't fight you.
It gives power, but not purpose.
It conforms to your reasoning…
But Avia made you become.
Every move you made with Avia, you had to mean it — or it broke.
You couldn't fake conviction with it. You couldn't cheat it with logic."
---
Androsha (quietly):
> "But wasn't that the point?
Wasn't the struggle… part of the awakening?"
---
Eugene (getting irritated):
> "You sound like you miss the weight.
You really wanna go back to a system that judged you when you weren't ready?"
---
Klexis:
> "No… I don't miss the weight. I miss what it revealed.
Devia gave us wings…
But Avia?
Avia gave us a mirror."
---
Jason (sitting on a chair of flames):
> "So what are you saying? That your dad was wrong?"
---
Klexis (pause, eyes narrowing):
> "I'm saying… he might have started with clarity.
But he ended with convenience.
And if your clarity turns into comfort… then you didn't evolve.
You just escaped."
---
Eve Maid (her smile slowly fades):
> "Klexis… are you planning to go back?"
---
Klexis:
> "I don't know.
But something tells me…
This ain't over.
Something deeper's shifting beneath all this."
---
Banjo (frowning now):
> "You really think Devia has a cost?"
---
Klexis (turning to leave):
> "Everything real does."
---
(As Klexis walks away, the sky above the Free Abyss ripples — a faint, almost imperceptible crack begins to form.)
Sanctuary of Liberation — A fortress of paradox, where thoughts float and logic bends like rivers.]
The air is dense with meaning. Giant gears of forgotten ideologies rotate in the background, powered not by physics, but belief. The candidates — Klexis, Jairak, Jason, Eugene, Eve Maid, Banjo, Androsha — gather around a fractured prism suspended midair.
From a spiral of sharpened silence and cracked golden light, Manu and Kari appear.
Manu — clad in armor made of mechanical philosophy, his presence calculated but thunderous.
Kari — her aura constantly shifting forms, embodying reason and rebellion at once.
---
Manu (calm and deliberate):
> "Devia… isn't just a power system.
It's Traxis — made into code.
A manifestation of his frustration, his questions, and his refusal to accept that the truth must always hurt to be real."
---
Kari (stepping forward, voice fluid like mercury):
> "Where Avia demands clarity through pain…
Devia embraces complexity with rhythm.
Avia made you earn yourself.
Devia lets you reshape yourself — if you can handle what you find."
---
Banjo (arms crossed):
> "So this ain't just... rebel power. It's a whole belief system."
---
Manu (nods):
> "Exactly. Think of it like this —
Corruption Force is the you you're most comfortable being.
Avia is the you you're afraid to face but meant to become.
But Devia?
Devia is the complexity within you that you resonate with —
The part of you that challenges yourself, but without guilt."
---
Jason (flames circling him, intrigued):
> "So it's like... power without punishment?"
---
Kari (smirks):
> "Not quite. It's power with layers.
Devia won't punish you like Avia…
But if you lie to yourself within it —
It won't stop you.
It'll let you become what you pretend to be."
---
Klexis (eyes narrowing):
> "Then it's a mirror... that doesn't argue.
It reflects... even if you're broken."
---
Manu (voice darkening slightly):
> "Exactly.
Devia doesn't care if you're right.
It only cares if you're real... to yourself.
But be warned —
If you chase strength without knowing what anchors you...
Devia will make you strong in the wrong direction."
---
Eve Maid (leans into the energy):
> "Sounds poetic... and dangerous."
---
Kari (eyes glowing):
> "It is.
Devia will not guide you.
That's not its job.
It will just give you the map...
And let you decide where to crash."
---
Jairak (grinning):
> "So we're holding philosophy now... like weapons."
---
Manu (points to the prism):
> "No, Jairak.
You've become the philosophy."
---
(They all go silent... as the prism pulses. Klexis stares at it. He still isn't sure — not because Devia is evil, but because it's honest in a way that might let evil hide in plain sight.)
---
Klexis (softly):
> "Then I need to ask...
If we become our own philosophies...
Who holds us accountable when we're wrong?"
---
Kari (stares at him, unblinking):
> "Only you, Klexis.
That's the weight of Devia.
It trusts you… even when you shouldn't."
---
[Scene ends with the prism fracturing slightly — not from pressure, but from choice.]
Devian Nexus Chamber — A silver mist rises from the floor, pulsing in rhythmic empathy to each candidate's thoughts. All around, the energy of Devia flows like whispers from forgotten philosophies.]
The Candidates stand in a circle, their affinities subtly shifting, bending, and becoming sharper... more resonant.
---
Klexis (twirling his dual hammers with effortless synchronicity):
> "This ain't just a power boost… it's like something's helping me do me.
I'm not even swinging to hit anymore… I'm just thinking and it obeys."
---
Jairak (grinning, holding a searing pain orb in his hand):
> "You feel that too, huh?
I was just reflecting on my worst day… and boom.
Devia shaped it into a weapon. Pain Clarity.
My trauma became my lens."
---
Eugene (speed-blurring into view, reality tearing behind him):
> "Yo—Devia just let me sprint across contradictions like sidewalks.
I ran through three possibilities of my own failure and chose not to fail.
Like... my doubt became momentum."
---
Androsha (fog spiraling around her like sentient mist):
> "My fog… it's remembering me.
It used to just cloud vision… now it tells stories.
It bends reality to how I feel the moment should look."
---
Jason (fire calmly orbiting his body, no longer wild):
> "My flames aren't burning outta rage anymore.
They ask questions now.
Like—'Does this deserve to be consumed?'
That's… terrifying.
But beautiful."
---
Eve Maid (softly, eyes glinting):
> "My Sedation… used to dull pain.
Now it silences intentions.
I whispered a doubt into the air... and it slept.
This isn't power... this is emotional negotiation."
---
Banjo (balancing on a paradox card):
> "I changed a rule mid-punch.
Mid. Punch.
Told gravity 'nah' and let my opponent fall up.
Devia doesn't break the rules... it just... asks why they exist.
And if it doesn't like the answer… it changes the question."
---
Klexis (watching his hammer hover beside him without touching it):
> "But… did y'all feel that flicker?
When you hesitated?
The moment you questioned yourself, Devia hesitated with you."
---
Jairak (serious now):
> "Yeah… I did.
Almost like... if we lie to ourselves, Devia echoes the lie."
---
Androsha (fog receding, her voice low):
> "Devia understands us.
But it doesn't obey us.
It's not a pet—it's... a mirror with a mind."
---
Jason (crosses arms, flame flickers uncertainly):
> "So if you're real with yourself… you're untouchable.
But if you fake it—
You burn from the inside out."
---
Banjo (grinning):
> "Now that's some poetic horror."
---
Eve Maid (smirking):
> "Sounds like love."
---
Klexis (looking ahead, solemn):
> "Then Devia's not just Traxis's creation.
It's... his confession."
---
[They all fall silent as the Devia pulses again—gently, knowingly—like a breath shared across their minds.]
Cosmic Gym, a colossal astral arena suspended in the Sky Weave of Airious. Gravity swirls like emotion, pressure ebbs and flows like breath. This isn't a gym—this is a forge of identity.]
The Human-born students—Jack, Henry, Yyvone, Ian, Osei Jerry, Charles, and Sonia—stand united, their auras steady, no longer flickering like uncertain flame but pulsing like heartbeats synced to truth.
Each one bears their battle scars from trauma, trial, and transformation. They've been broken. And rebuilt.
They are not here to train for power.
They are here to train for meaning.
But then...
"YOU!"
A shout cuts across the cosmic silence.
From the east gate of the gym float in seven Airiens—familiar faces warped by newfound resolve and rebellious pride. Their auras now feel... strange. Not corrupted. But bent.
The Deviant-touched students.
---
☀️ The Confrontation Begins
Meilo (his Glass Affinity now jagged and unstable):
> "Funny how you outsiders act like you know Avia better than those born into it.
We lived this system. We suffered for it. And Traxis gave us what we never had—release."
Jack Sterling (eyes calm but blazing):
> "No. He gave you permission to ignore the truth.
But truth don't vanish because you skip class. It waits. In the back of your mind. In your flickering Avia."
Nicia (jello-like ink sloshing at her feet, voice trembling):
> "Easy for you to talk about clarity when everything bends for you.
I used to be soft. I wanted to stay soft. But soft doesn't survive!"
Yyvone (softly, a thread lifting from her palm):
> "Softness isn't weakness. It's just a different kind of strength.
One that doesn't need to scream to be heard."
Jero (hiding behind Nicia, his aura like a breath held too long):
> "I'm not a coward anymore. Traxis made me own my fear."
Sonia (with an amused smile):
> "Owning fear isn't the same as becoming it, Jero."
---
Ulok (clenching his fists, the locks on his wrists twitching):
> "I've been locked away all my life. Devia made me realize...
maybe it's better to stay locked than to open something ugly inside."
Henry (tilting his head):
> "Or maybe you're scared that what's inside isn't ugly at all... just real."
---
Tarren (quiet, eyes down):
> "I... I just want to be seen.
Maybe Traxis is right. Maybe being almost good is enough."
Ian (eyes fierce):
> "Then make it enough.
Not because Traxis told you so—but because you choose it. That's Avia."
---
Kranor steps forward, silent. The swordsman whose blade is praised, but soul is masked.
His sword gleams, but his momentum is off—his aura spasms in rhythm with his doubt.
Charles (not even defensive):
> "You swing like someone trying to prove something to everyone... but not to yourself.
That's why your Avia doesn't trust you."
Kranor (growling):
> "You think you're better than us?"
Charles (serious now):
> "No. I think we've been where you are. And we chose not to stay there."
---
💥 The Tension Peaks
Jack steps forward, lightning dancing in his veins.
> "You want a challenge?
Fine.
But don't do it because you think Traxis gave you permission.
Do it because deep down, you want to know if what you've clung to is real."
Meilo (glass cracking across his face like a mirror under pressure):
> "We'll see who's real."
---
[The cosmic gym ignites.]
The spar isn't about power.
It's about philosophy.
About identity.
About whether freedom from truth is worth more than freedom through truth.
This... is more than a fight.
It's a reckoning.
Cosmic Gym—Now warped with dimensional tears, emotional ruptures, and threads of shifting laws. The sparring has escalated into a full-on philosophical battlefield. Avia clashes with Deviant-charged instinct. Flexibility vs Clarity. Truth vs Traxis's "truth." The human-born students stand tall… but it's far from over.]
---
⚔️ Ian vs. Kranor (Sword Duel of the Soul)
Kranor's blade shimmered with hesitance masked by excellence, slicing through the air with terrifying momentum. His Momentum & Release affinity gave him bursts of kinetic blitz—each swing sharper, each move unpredictable.
Ian blocked, parried, and smiled.
> "You're good, Kranor. But you fight like you're trying to catch up to yourself."
Kranor narrowed his eyes.
> "I fight like someone who's tired of pretending."
They clashed. Sparks of Avian energy shot like comets across the arena.
Kranor pulled off a Momentum Snap-Step, appearing above Ian with a heavy downward slash.
But Ian whispered—
"Horizon Slash."
The sword didn't slash from where he stood.
It slashed from where he imagined.
Kranor fell to one knee, a gash of emotion across his spirit.
But then...
Kranor rose.
Blood trickling from his mouth.
> "I still have something to prove… even to myself."
---
⚔️ Osei Jerry vs. Jero (Coward's Gambit)
Jero, now confident in his Warrior Chain affinity, lashed out. Chains of flickering resolve danced around him, binding Osei's sage arts in mid-execution.
> "You rely too much on instinct, Jerry!"
Osei grinned.
> "Yeah... but instinct never lies."
He vanished with Hollow Step, reappeared behind Jero, and delivered an Avian Punch to the back.
Jero gasped, falling forward—
—but the chains remained… still active.
> "Guess you've learned to fight after all," Osei muttered.
---
⚔️ Sonia vs. Nicia (Softness War)
Nicia's ink affinity exploded into spears, wolves, shadow flowers, all fueled by broken identity.
> "You think hope wins? You think softness survives?!"
Sonia's Emotional Overdrive flared—her eyes shimmered in blue, calm like dawn.
> "It doesn't survive. It blooms."
Sonia countered every attack with spectral constructs made of hope, kindness, and joy.
A blue phoenix crashed into Nicia's shadow panther.
Ink splashed. Sonia stood tall.
Nicia, on her knees, tears mixing with her own ink.
---
⚔️ Yyvone vs. Meilo (The Mirror Duel)
Meilo's shattered glass multiplied mid-air, swirling into a storm of razor illusions.
> "Y'know what hurts more than glass? Knowing Avia never accepted me."
Yyvone smiled softly.
> "Then maybe... it's time you accept yourself."
He shattered into a mirror and re-emerged behind her.
But Threadrift activated.
In her zone, brokenness is just misplaced wholeness.
The mirror fragments in him were restitched.
His body spasmed as clarity seeped in.
> "No... stop making me feel," Meilo whispered.
---
⚔️ Ulok & Tarren vs. Charles, Kennedy, Jack
Ulok's Locks of Repression halted even Charles's sigils mid-air.
> "You can't hack what isn't yours to open!"
Charles smirked, a runic glyph appearing on Ulok's arm.
> "Correction: I just did."
Kennedy clapped once—Syntax Shift Protocol warped the battlefield.
The ground rippled into code. Ulok's locks turned into harmless ribbons.
Jack pointed at Tarren.
> "You've got a heart. You just wear it behind fear."
"That's why your Affinity trembles when you panic."
Then—
Jack's Analysis Eyes saw it—
> "There's two more hiding."
---
⚠️ REVEAL: Marneth & Gullia Enter
The arena trembled.
A portal of twisting reality opened. Out stepped Marneth, his aura fractalized like broken glass.
> "I'm tired of pretending I'm okay… in here."
He gestures at his chest.
Dimension Surge activated.
Space bent around him. He tossed Charles into a realm of infinite mirrors. Jack caught him with lightning threads.
But then…
BOOM
Gullia erupted from the shadows. His trauma released in the form of a massive trauma bomb—emotions compressed to the brink of explosion.
> "This pain… you think Avia helped me?! I weaponized what therapy couldn't fix!"
Sonia stepped up.
> "Pain isn't something to explode.
It's something to understand."
Ian, Jack, Kennedy, Charles, Yyvone, Henry, Osei stepped forward.
United.
> "We're not here to win. We're here to remind you... Avia doesn't ask for perfection. It asks for you."
Marneth stilled.
Gullia's explosions stopped mid-burst.
Tarren stepped between them.
> "Maybe... maybe I don't need Traxis to validate who I am."
---
⚖️ The Gym Fell Silent
The students who had embraced Devia looked shaken. Not defeated—but seen.
Truth didn't destroy them.
It reached them.
The fight wasn't just a battle. It was therapy, soul-sparring, identity sculpting.
---
> "Let this be the start of something greater than power," said Charles.
> "Let this be a conversation," said Sonia.
> "Let this... be a future Traxis can't overwrite," said Jack.
The Cosmic Gym, scarred from spiritual truths and philosophical punches. Echoes of broken walls, lingering light trails of Avian energy, and now—Devia's brute logic—hang in the air. The battle paused... only for a moment. But it wasn't over. Not even close.]
---
Kranor, standing tall, face bloodied but gaze unshaken, gripped his blade with two hands. His breathing was calm—not from fatigue, but from resolve.
> Kranor:
"Say what you will about truth…
But we've walked the halls of shame and disappointment.
We cracked, and no one came for us. Not Avia. Not anyone."
He stepped forward. A golden pulse flared in his blade.
The Devia inside him hummed in tune.
> "But Devia… Devia doesn't ask for my purity.
It accepts my flaws and sharpens them into function.
And now… it's our turn."
He turned to the rest of his team.
Nicia, her ink flowing in waves like sentient shadow;
Jero, arms bruised but chains vibrating with emotion;
Meilo, glass swirling like galaxies in chaos;
Ulok, face steady, holding back tears with a twitching smirk;
Tarren, fists trembling, but standing tall.
> Kranor:
"Don't let them change what we've become.
Don't let their pretty words wrap you back in chains.
Stand strong."
---
Jero, with eyes darkened, raised his hand—chains clinking like a cursed melody.
> Jero:
"I don't need a system to tell me I'm brave.
I only need one second of madness… to change a lifetime of fear."
He lunged. Chains wrapped in hesitation—but bound in choice.
They snaked toward Osei again, faster, smarter, more sentient.
---
Meilo, shards dancing around him, flicked his fingers.
> Meilo:
"I was always told broken glass only cuts.
Turns out… it also reflects who I am."
A prism of mirrors exploded outward, creating thousands of Meilos in a kaleidoscope of truth and lies.
---
Nicia, now with a storm of Ink Furies, looked Sonia in the eyes.
> Nicia:
"You fight with joy… I fight with despair.
Let's see which one has more ink in the pen."
She sent rage wolves tearing through the arena—each one a repressed memory made beast.
---
Ulok, hands on two spiritual padlocks, finally grinned.
> Ulok:
"I used to hide my childish wonder.
But what's wrong with being a happy key?"
He unlocked one of the biggest locks—and a blast of play-energy erupted, crashing into Jack and Charles with rubberband physics.
---
Tarren, trembling… but smirking, eyes on Kennedy.
> Tarren:
"Even panic has a tempo."
He activated Valor Overload—his panic state created a slow-motion field, where fear slows time, giving him milliseconds of reaction to counter Avian zones.
---
🔥 And then Kranor lifted his blade.
It split into five—each one holding a moment in his insecurity, forged into solid strength.
> Kranor:
"This isn't about being better than you.
This is about not being less than myself anymore!"
He charged Ian with brutal footwork, slashing not just at his opponent… but at expectation itself.
---
[The Arena turned into chaos. Devia wasn't perfect—but it was potent. It was reckless and elegant. Each move from the students was now no longer boxed into growth—but expansion.]
Charles dodged—barely.
Kennedy rewrote a section of space to block Ulok's keys.
Sonia clashed ink with emotion.
Jack's Storm Crucible flickered, as even his clarity was being questioned.
---
But Jack clenched his fist. His Analysis Eyes glowed white-hot.
> Jack:
"You're right.
Avia failed you.
But that doesn't mean Traxis succeeded."
Lightning ripped from his body. A thunderstorm began to form above the gym itself.
> "You don't fix fire… with more fire.
You fix fire with understanding.
And then—if necessary—you burn what doesn't belong."
He called out—
> "Let this end... with choice.
Not compliance."
---
Clash. Crack. Confrontation.
The gym—no, the cosmos itself—trembled.
And in a realm not too far away...
Traxis felt the echo.
> "Hmm… so they're finally taking it personal.
Good."
Cosmic Gym — Broken, storm-ridden, time-warped. The battle now isn't about raw might. It's about internal clarity. And right now... clarity is foggy.]
---
Chains. So many chains.
Jero's affinity — fueled by Kranor's rising resolve — had tethered the Human-born team mid-battle.
Then came Gullia's Chaos Bomb.
It detonated not with fire, but with memory.
Memories wrapped in barbed wire and whispered regrets.
Pain, trauma, the ghosts of growth...
Kennedy screamed in silence, facing every rejection letter at once.
Ian watched his father, arms crossed in eternal disappointment.
Charles saw his father in a hospital bed… just out of reach.
Osei Jerry stared into his mother's last breath, again and again.
Yyvone relived the cold nights in the orphanage, the bitter wind against frail skin.
Jack… saw the look. That look. The one society gives when it pretends he doesn't belong.
And then—
Marneth smirked and triggered Recursive Dimension Surge.
Charles and Kennedy tried to overwrite reality, but every rewrite looped into another rewrite.
Like hacking a program that had become self-aware and petty.
> Marneth:
"Rewriting is cool… but can you rewrite yourself?"
The battlefield was a psychological slaughterhouse.
The Devia team wasn't just attacking bodies...
They were attacking beliefs.
And Jack, glowing with static grief, just stood there.
His Analysis Eyes flickered...
...then dimmed.
Was this it? Did clarity lose?
But then—
💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥💥
A flash. A blur. A storm without sound.
The lights of the gym shattered.
The loop paused.
Time flinched.
---
[Henry had entered the battlefield.]
He stood there. Calm.
Hair whipping from static speed.
Eyes glowing with Pulse Reversal.
Crackles of electric emotion danced from finger to foot.
> Henry:
"Funny thing about recursive loops…
They stack.
And I just overclocked all of them."
In less than a heartbeat, Henry vanished.
He reappeared behind Marneth, palming his back with a charged pulse.
⚡️**"Loop Breaker."**⚡️
BOOM.
Marneth flew across the arena, dimension folding behind him like shattered origami.
---
Then another punch—
Right into Gullia's trauma aura, absorbing it with electric motion empathy.
> Henry:
"We all got pain, bro.
Difference is… we're not letting it define our output."
Each of his hits supercharged the human team's emotional clarity stats.
It wasn't just speed. It was emotional revving.
---
Chains snapped.
Yyvone gasped and stood, her Threadrift now glowing again.
Charles's runes reignited.
Kennedy wiped a tear. His Framework Protocol shifted.
Ian's sword began vibrating. He was remembering who he was.
Jack?
Jack smiled.
His Analysis Eyes lit up like divine x-rays.
> Jack:
"Thanks, bro. I just needed to blink."
---
Flash Instincts reactivated.
Jack's Storm Crucible crackled, then twisted.
This wasn't electricity.
This was Judgment reawakened.
> Jack:
"You wanna know what clarity is?
It's not about avoiding pain.
It's about choosing your next step… while bleeding."
He vanished—
Then appeared in front of Kranor.
> Jack:
"You're strong.
But clarity... clarity means knowing why you swing the sword."
---
Ian, fire now glowing across his blade.
> Ian:
"And I know exactly why."
Sonia activated Emotional Overdrive, her spectrum breaking Gullia's trauma avatars.
Kennedy and Charles began rewriting the battlefield, this time embedding emotional anchors to prevent loops.
Yyvone stretched her threads. A Barrier of Belief formed.
---
Henry, dusting his hands.
> Henry:
"We ain't here to prove we're perfect.
We're here to prove we've grown."
---
And across the battlefield, something shifted.
The very concept of clarity began to pulse in the gym's foundations.
Even the spectators… began to understand.
This wasn't a fight about systems.
This was a debate of purpose... with fists.
Silent. The echo of electric clarity still buzzing in the air. The battle is over... but the war in their hearts? Just beginning.]
---
Kranor, panting, gripping his flickering sword, gazed at the ground.
The battlefield was littered with fading constructs, broken chains, and shards of glass.
The Human-born stood together — not untouched, but unbroken.
> Kranor (thinking):
"They're not stronger... they're clearer. That's why Avia flows through them like breath... like truth."
But his lips didn't speak it.
He turned to his squad.
> Kranor (aloud, coldly):
"We'll pull back. We've shown them what we needed to. This isn't over."
---
Jero, shoulders heavy, kept glancing at Osei Jerry, who stood tall, arms crossed but face soft.
Osei had seen it... that flicker of courage in Jero's eyes.
> Jero (murmuring):
"I felt it… for a moment, I wasn't afraid."
> Osei:
"Then hold onto that, Jero. Let it grow."
> Jero (pulling away):
"No. It'll just vanish again... like always."
He walked off — not broken, but retreating into the familiar.
---
Sonia stepped forward, her colors now mellow.
She reached a hand toward Nicia, whose black ink aura pulsed erratically.
A small blob of orange jello quivered by her feet.
> Sonia:
"That right there... that's softness trying to come back."
> Nicia (whispering):
"I don't want it. It makes me feel… exposed."
> Sonia:
"Yeah. That's how healing starts."
> Nicia (eyes trembling):
"Then I don't want to heal."
She vanished into her ink — leaving only the orange glimmer behind.
---
Gullia, breathing hard, his aura warped with emotional detritus.
> Gullia:
"My trauma is my strength. Without it, I'm nothing."
> Yyvone (quietly):
"That's the lie they fed you."
> Gullia (snapping):
"No. That's the only truth I've got."
And yet... his next step faltered. Just slightly.
---
Tarren, fists clenched, stared at the Human team — especially at Jack.
> Tarren:
"I believed... for a second. I wanted to believe..."
> Jack:
"Then what stopped you?"
> Tarren (voice shaking):
"What if I'm not enough?"
> Jack:
"Then that means you're real. That's where the truth begins."
Tarren looked away.
---
Marneth, hovering between dimensions, scoffed.
> Marneth:
"Impressive illusions of growth you lot carry. But clarity's a luxury. I prefer control."
> Kennedy (coolly):
"Then you'll never evolve. You'll just loop."
Marneth smirked and disappeared into a rift — but his smirk was tighter than before.
---
Ulok, the quietest of all, had his back turned.
Charles stepped up.
> Charles:
"You locked yourself away because you're scared of how good you are when you're free, huh?"
Ulok didn't reply.
> Charles:
"You know, being childish isn't weakness. It's wonder. It's life."
> Ulok (barely audible):
"...It's embarrassing."
> Charles:
"No. What's embarrassing is pretending not to be amazing."
Ulok clenched his fists. Walked away.
---
Meilo, still holding one last shard of jagged glass. His reflection in it... looked unsure.
Yyvone approached, eyes calm.
> Yyvone:
"Broken doesn't mean scattered. It means you know where the pieces are."
> Meilo:
"...And what if I like the broken feeling?"
> Yyvone:
"Then you're still hiding. From your own light."
He didn't respond. But he didn't shatter the glass. That meant something.
---
As the Deviant team walked off — bruised, battered, but pretending not to be — Kranor paused at the exit.
He looked back.
> Kranor (thinking):
"If I tell them why we truly lost... they'll break. And maybe... I'm scared of what I'll become if I admit it too."
Instead, he called out:
> Kranor:
"You haven't won. You've just delayed the truth."
---
Jack, standing center, arms folded, said quietly:
> Jack:
"No... we've revealed it. Whether you want to face it or not... is your real battle."
They watched their rivals fade from the gym…
But none of the human-born students smiled. Because they knew… the hardest fights aren't fought with fists.
They're fought in the silence of who you pretend to be.