The moment Kairis stepped beyond the next gate, the world inverted.
A blast of air hit him first — not a breeze, but a wall of compressed wind that could crush bones. The ground below wasn't ground at all — it was a vast, hovering ocean of storm clouds, illuminated by veins of blue lightning running like arteries through the black. Every second, the sky roared as if alive.
He barely caught his balance, gravity bending beneath his boots.
Then came the voice.
> "Another soul braves the storm," it murmured, calm as distant thunder. "You reek of pressure… yet you have not learned to move with it."
Kairis's eyes narrowed, scanning the horizon.
And then he saw him — Alyth.
He floated above the maelstrom, silver hair whipping behind him, eyes like two charged stars. His bare feet never touched the air; they commanded it. His robes were made of cloud and crackling electricity, and his expression was maddeningly tranquil — like a monk who could erase mountains with a sigh.
The Storm-Wielder extended his arm lazily, fingers trailing sparks.
> "Let the wind judge your resolve, gravity child."
Kairis didn't answer — he simply crouched, muscles tensing, and launched himself forward.
The air screamed.
He shot through the storm like a black meteor, Gyro-Telekinesis twisting around his limbs as gravity folded inwards, turning him into a projectile. But before he could close the distance — Alyth flicked his wrist.
BOOM!
A column of lightning thicker than a skyscraper tore from the heavens, slamming into Kairis mid-flight. His scream was drowned by the thunderclap. His body spun like a doll, crashing into the cloud floor — or what passed for one — breaking through layers of condensed mist that felt like stone.
Pain crackled across every nerve. His chest heaved. Smoke rose from his arms.
> "Too slow," Alyth's voice echoed from everywhere at once. "Gravity binds. Storms flow. You cling when you should let go."
Kairis wiped blood from his mouth, grinning. "You talk too much."
He stomped — and the entire storm folded.
Gravity rippled outward from him in circular waves, dragging the clouds downward, distorting the air itself. Alyth's eyes twitched slightly, impressed — the boy had just created a micro-singularity in a world of pure tempest.
Kairis blurred forward again, fists cloaked in spiraling black energy — Gravity Coils. He threw a punch.
Alyth raised a finger.
The wind bent around his hand, caught the punch — and redirected it back. The shockwave blasted both of them backward, ripping open a hole in the clouds that stretched to infinity.
Kairis crashed, rolled, and stopped inches from a lightning fissure.
Alyth floated downward, serene, hands behind his back.
> "I was once a storm without direction. Lucien taught me restraint. Tell me… who taught you control?"
Kairis rose slowly, eyes shadowed beneath his blood-matted hair.
"…No one."
He extended his hand, gravity swirling around it like ink in water.
"I learned control by surviving it."
He thrust his palm upward — and the sky shattered.
Thousands of chunks of dense atmosphere — compressed by his gravity field — burst upward like floating meteors. Alyth tilted his head, sensing the shift. Kairis's aura pulsed black-red now, his heart syncing with the rhythm of thunder.
"Gravity Zone: 7th Collapse!"
The entire storm buckled, bending toward a single focal point — Alyth.
The Storm-Wielder raised both arms, eyes glowing white. "Tempest Mantle."
Lightning wrapped around him like armor, the winds shielding his body from compression. Gravity screamed against storm. Air was torn apart. Lightning warped around dense fields of force — two natural disasters colliding in humanoid form.
Kairis launched forward, fists meeting Alyth's bare hands in a storm of detonations. Every strike was a miniature implosion — every parry, a gust strong enough to rip the horizon apart. Kairis fought like a brawler born in zero gravity, every kick propelling him mid-air, every spin creating bursts of centrifugal pressure.
Alyth parried with elegance, flowing between strikes like water over stone. His counters were whispers — each movement effortless, minimal — yet every one nearly fatal.
He vanished — then appeared behind Kairis, palm glowing.
> "Thunder Palm."
Kairis turned — too late.
The blow landed against his chest, sending a jolt through his body that felt like being struck by the hand of a god. His muscles convulsed, vision fracturing. He fell — spinning endlessly through the storm.
He hit a thunder platform and skidded, smoke rising off him.
The system wasn't speaking — no health bars, no safety. He was alone in raw pain.
He laughed weakly.
> "You hit hard… old man."
Alyth descended slowly, lightning parting for him.
> "Then fall. And rise again. That is the purpose of this trial."
Kairis spat blood, then stood, his knees trembling.
He remembered Elyra's smile. Aeren's laugh. Kaiyara's tears.
And something inside him snapped.
The gravity around his body reversed — a full inversion. Instead of pulling inward, it began to breathe. Expanding and contracting like lungs.
Alyth's eyes widened slightly. "He's… synchronizing?"
Kairis took one step forward — the air bent around him.
Another — lightning curved away.
He vanished.
The next second, his fist collided with Alyth's face, bending space itself.
The impact created a vacuum ring that exploded milliseconds later, flinging both of them through the storm in a blazing spiral of light.
> "Gyro-Telekinesis — Full Resonance!"
He slammed his foot into Alyth's stomach, followed by a spinning elbow — a blur of martial precision amplified by crushing gravity bursts. Alyth tried to counter, calling the lightning back — but Kairis was already gone, above him, hand outstretched.
"Gravity Falls!"
A dark finger descended from the void above — the pressure so immense the clouds themselves began to sink into nothingness. Alyth looked up, smiling faintly.
> "So you've learned to turn weight into will."
Then he closed his eyes and raised both hands.
"Storm of the Creator!"
Lightning met gravity — creation met collapse.
For an instant, the world froze. Then the universe screamed.
The explosion was silent, only light — pure light consuming everything. When it faded, Kairis lay on his back, half-conscious, bleeding from his mouth. Alyth hovered nearby, his robe tattered, his arm flickering in and out of form.
Alyth's lips curved into a faint smile.
> "You… have surpassed the second threshold."
Kairis groaned, smirking weakly. "Yeah… felt like it."
> "Then move forward, Gravity Wielder. Beyond me lies Kaelthar… the Tactician. You'll find no mercy there."
Kairis closed his eyes, whispering, "Then I'll adapt again."
The storm faded.
And as he was lifted to the next gate, a single drop of rain fell on his face — warm, like gratitude.