The morning sparkled harshly off Academy steel as Roy secured his combat gear, the cold air biting against exposed skin. Beneath the suit, Zephyros stirred—restless, volatile—while Umbryon lay coiled behind his breath, silent and watchful. The two no longer fought for dominance, but neither were they calm.
Jean stood beside him, checking the seals on her armor. Her proud smile carried a thread of unease. Today wasn't another drill.
Beyond the reinforced gates, the trial field waited—an engineered wasteland of shattered towers, jagged ruins, shifting wind corridors, and deep pockets of manufactured darkness. Environmental systems hummed beneath the ground, constantly rewriting terrain variables.
This was live testing.
Real enemies.
Real consequences.
The gates groaned open.
The Challenge: Beyond the Barrier
Instructor Galehart's voice thundered across the arena.
"Roy. Step forward."
Roy did.
"Drop the restraints. Three high-level Neutron simulacra. Simultaneous engagement. No recovery windows."
The locks disengaged with a sharp hiss. Weight vanished from his limbs as safety governors shut down.
"Use the storm," Galehart continued. "Velocity, pressure, momentum. Make the wind obey."
A second voice slid in behind Roy's thoughts—soft, invasive.
"And remember," Selvaris whispered, unseen, "power draws attention. When they look for you, erase yourself. Kill the light."
Jean took position at the field's edge, fingers tightening around her blade. Her Pyrrion glow pulsed steadily—ready.
Battle Engaged: Storm and Shadow Unleashed
The ground shuddered.
Three Neutron simulacra emerged from the ruins at once—crystalline armor flexing, limbs moving with predatory fluidity. Targeting glyphs flared as their systems locked onto Roy.
He didn't wait.
Roy ignited his Puls Burst.
Zephyros detonated through his bloodstream, tripling his velocity in a heartbeat. The world stretched and thinned as Umbryon flowed over his limbs, swallowing reflections and distorting targeting algorithms. Puls-based nanobots screamed into overdrive, reinforcing muscle fibers, accelerating neural pathways, synchronizing breath with motion.
He moved.
Wind cracked beneath his boots as he vaulted over broken steel. Pistols barked—each shot riding compressed air corridors that split armor on impact. A Neutron lunged—
Too slow.
Roy vanished into shadow, reappearing behind it as black-edged blades carved through synthetic bone.
"Don't let them reset!" Galehart roared. "Pressure! Always pressure!"
Roy obeyed, becoming a living cyclone—wind-powered leaps chained with shadow-veiled feints. One simulacrum shattered under a focused wind tackle that slammed it into a fractured wall.
Selvaris's presence spread like a falling veil.
"Now," she whispered. "Disappear."
Roy compressed his output.
Umbryon deepened, swallowing his Puls signature to a near-whisper. Wind propulsion narrowed into silent vectors. The remaining Neutrons swung blindly, predictive models failing as Roy struck between their thoughts.
Breaking the Wall: Extended Puls Burst
The warning rose inside him.
Two minutes.
This was where collapse always came—energy bleed, neural overload, forced shutdown. His nanobots flagged critical thresholds, urging disengagement.
Roy didn't push harder.
He refined.
Zephyros stopped raging and became a controlled current. Umbryon wrapped around the storm, sealing its edges instead of draining it. Puls leakage dropped sharply as his nanobots recalibrated for efficiency rather than output.
The collapse didn't come.
Jean's breath caught. "He passed it… and stabilized."
Three minutes.
Four.
Five.
Roy was still moving—fast, precise, lethal.
By the time the final Neutron fell, nearly seven minutes had passed since activation.
Roy disengaged the Puls Burst manually.
No backlash.
No blackout.
Just deep, burning exhaustion.
The Fluxite Transition
Roy barely had time to steady his breathing before a soft, resonant ping echoed through his mind.
Internal directive acknowledged.
His nanobots shifted.
Not gradually.
Fundamentally.
The architecture that governed his Puls Core began restructuring in real time, protocols overwriting themselves as the system initiated a long-prepared contingency. Roy staggered slightly as warmth bloomed in his chest.
Zephyros didn't vanish—but its violent edge dulled, kinetic output smoothing into controlled flow. Umbryon's draining cold softened into a stabilizing void.
The Puls Core reformed around a new lattice.
Fluxite.
A Pyrrion-derived, hyper-stable matrix designed not to burn energy, but to hold and regulate it.
Roy stood still as the sensation settled. Where the Puls Burst had felt like a shout of power, this was a deep, silent hum—constant, contained.
Selvaris stepped closer, curiosity threading her voice.
"How does it feel?"
Roy opened his eyes slowly.
"Stable," he said. "Like the storm is caged… and I decide when to open the door."
Beyond the Academy Gates
The instructors gathered around him—not as overseers now, but equals.
Galehart placed a heavy hand on Roy's shoulder. "The Academy's role ends here. Fluxite will let you sustain output far longer—but control still matters. Exhaustion will always be your final limit."
Selvaris handed him a sleek military hardcase. "Your weapons have been refitted. Fluxite kinetic conductors. They draw directly from your core—faster response, heavier impact."
Jean stepped forward last, her Pyrrion glow steady and resolute.
"You're no longer a cadet," she said. "You're a Guardian-in-Transition. Central Authority has issued your first real assignment."
Roy met her gaze. "What's the mission?"
Jean's expression hardened.
"Dr. Aris Thane is missing. He holds the keys to the next generation of Pyrrion–Fluxite fusion. Find him—or find what took him."
The hum in Roy's chest steadied.
Storm and shadow, bound by Fluxite.
And beyond the Academy walls, the world waited.