The night over Aurelion-9 was not dark.
It glowed.
Crimson auroras rippled across the shattered sky, drawn from the planet's broken energy veins. Storm clouds hung frozen in impossible shapes while fragments of ancient towers drifted slowly overhead, suspended by unstable gravity fields that had never fully healed.
Kali moved through the ruins beneath that burning sky, the cracked ground crunching beneath his boots.
The aftermath of the plaza battle still clung to him.
Blood — not all his.
Cracks in his armor where bone shards had struck.
The slow, steady burn of power inside his core that refused to cool.
He had crossed another threshold.
He could feel it.
Every breath carried more weight. Every step pressed deeper into the world, as if reality itself was acknowledging him.
The Selection Grounds were changing around him.
And so was he.
The first sign came when the ruins went quiet.
Not the normal silence of death — but the controlled stillness of hunters preparing to move.
Kali halted beside a collapsed wall and closed his eyes.
His senses stretched outward.
Energy flows twisted around him: faint signals of candidates hiding in shattered alleys, stronger pulses gathering several kilometers away, and beneath it all the deep, ancient heartbeat of the planet itself.
Aurelion-9 was watching.
Then the message arrived.
A pulse of foreign energy brushed against his perception — structured, deliberate, and powerful.
Not a candidate.
A communication wave.
Kali lifted his wrist. His comm crystal shimmered to life, projecting a translucent interface.
[Federation Broadcast — Restricted Channel: CANDIDATE ZONE]
A calm female voice filled the air.
"Attention, remaining candidates. Phase Two of the Selection will begin at dawn. All surviving participants are ordered to proceed toward the central convergence zone. Failure to comply will result in immediate disqualification."
The signal ended.
Kali stared at the glowing horizon.
Phase Two.
So the real test was only just beginning.
He reached a high ridge formed from the collapsed roof of an ancient transit station and surveyed the broken city.
The movement had begun.
Energy streaks traced across the ruins as candidates abandoned hiding places, drawn by the broadcast like moths to flame. Some traveled in pairs. Others in small squads. A few, like Kali, moved alone.
None of them looked weak.
Kali's core pulsed.
He understood now.
The earlier chaos had been the culling.
This was the convergence.
An hour later he reached the outer boundary of the central zone.
The land changed there.
The stone beneath his feet darkened into crystalline obsidian laced with glowing fractures. Towers rose from the earth at impossible angles, their surfaces etched with ancient runes that shimmered faintly in the stormlight. At the center of the zone stood a colossal ring of floating monoliths, slowly rotating around a pit that vanished into glowing mist.
Energy roared from that abyss.
Raw. Violent. Alive.
Kali felt his skin prickle as the power brushed against him.
Other candidates had already arrived.
Dozens of them.
They formed loose circles around the pit, all maintaining distance, all watching one another.
No one attacked.
Not yet.
Kali stepped into the outer ring of observers.
A man with silver markings across his neck glanced at him and then looked away. A woman gripping a massive war-blade narrowed her eyes, recognition flickering in her gaze.
Word was spreading.
The plaza fight had not gone unnoticed.
Then the sky fractured.
Light split the clouds as a massive Federation observation craft descended above the convergence zone. Its hull glowed with layered energy shields, and its presence crushed the surrounding air with overwhelming pressure.
Every candidate felt it.
A figure appeared in the sky.
He did not fly.
Space simply folded beneath his feet.
He wore no armor, only a dark uniform trimmed with silver insignia. His hair was white as starlight, his eyes cold and bottomless.
Kali's core tightened.
This was not a candidate.
This was a commander.
The man's voice rolled across the convergence zone.
"Welcome to Phase Two."
His gaze swept the gathering.
"You have survived the initial culling. That alone qualifies you to stand here."
A gesture, and the pit at the center of the monolith ring erupted with blinding light. Holographic symbols surged upward, forming rotating diagrams of unknown structures and energy pathways.
"The second phase will determine your future."
Murmurs rippled through the crowd.
"You will descend into the Abyssal Sector beneath this city. Inside are ancient constructs, hostile entities, unstable energy zones, and relics of extinct civilizations. Your objective is simple: survive, grow stronger, and claim the inheritance hidden within."
The commander's eyes sharpened.
"Only those who leave the Abyssal Sector alive will advance to Phase Three."
Silence fell.
Then he looked directly at Kali.
And for a brief moment, the universe seemed to narrow to a single point of awareness.
"Begin."
The ground trembled.
The monoliths flared.
The pit roared open.
And the real trial of Kali's ascension began.