The night after training, Theo dragged himself home, his body weighed down by a deep, stubborn fatigue. Each step pressed harder than the last, his muscles screaming in quiet protest. It felt like he had already reached his limit hours ago, yet something kept him moving. Inside his room, he stepped into the shower and turned the water cold. It ran over his skin, washing away surface tension, but the exhaustion beneath refused to fade. His shoulders throbbed. His arms felt distant, heavy, slow to respond. He stepped out and grabbed a bottle, emptying a full liter without pause. The water burned faintly down his throat, but his body absorbed it eagerly. It was not enough, but it helped. The moment he touched the bed, his body gave in. Sleep took him whole. By 6 a.m., his eyes opened. The soreness remained, sharp and present, but something else lingered beneath it. A quiet steadiness. Not excitement. Not fear. Just resolve, settled deep in his chest. He dressed without hesitation a

Theo returned home that night with a quiet mind. It was not emptiness or exhaustion, but a stillness that settled deep within him. The kind earned through pressure, through being pushed to the edge and coming back sharper. Something inside him had changed, not louder, but steadier. Warm water ran over his body as he stood beneath the shower, eyes closed. The tension in his muscles eased, yet something remained beneath it. Not fatigue. Not strain. A presence coiled within him, silent and waiting. Raze Tempest. The memory came back with clarity. Wind tearing through space. Speed he could not follow. A fight that ended before he understood it. The gap between them had been overwhelming, almost suffocating. His fingers curled slightly before loosening again. His breathing slowed, steady and controlled as his thoughts settled. “This time… I win.” Morning came without resistance. Soft light slipped through the window and rested across his face. Theo opened his eyes, clear and focused,

The training hall felt different the moment Theo stepped inside. It was not something he could point to. The walls were the same. The floor had not changed. Yet something unseen had settled into the space, quiet but undeniable, like a presence that had always been there but was only now allowing itself to be noticed. Theo slowed without meaning to. His gaze moved across the hall, sharp and searching, while his body reacted ahead of his thoughts. Muscles tightened. Breathing shifted. His instincts rose in silent warning, as if he had stepped into the territory of something far greater than himself. “…Something’s changed.” Mack stood at the center. Still as ever, his posture relaxed, yet the space around him felt subtly distorted. It was not visible, but it was there, like the air itself had grown denser near him, bending ever so slightly under his presence. “You can feel it now,” Mack said. Theo let out a slow breath and approached, forcing his body to settle despite the tension

The crimson glow deepened. It no longer flickered like something on the verge of collapse. It held steady, burning with a quiet intensity that felt ancient and unyielding. The light pulsed in slow waves, spreading through his body with a presence that felt less like energy and more like authority. It felt unfamiliar. Yet it did not reject him. Theo’s body shook as the force inside him surged without restraint, tearing through his veins in violent bursts. His chest tightened sharply, each heartbeat slamming harder than the last, loud enough to drown out the world around him. Boom! Boom! Boom! The rhythm grew heavier, pressing against his ribs as if something inside was trying to break free. “Ghh…!” His fingers locked into his shirt, pulling the fabric tight as though it was the only thing keeping him steady. Pain surged from deep within his body, sharp and unrelenting, spreading in violent waves that made his breath stutter. His shoulders tensed as his frame trembled under the p

Power did not arrive as a gift. It tore into the world without warning, without mercy, and without any regard for whether humanity was ready to face it. Cities that once stood proud were reduced to silence within days, their structures broken, their people scattered or gone. Order did not fade slowly. It collapsed all at once. Survival became uncertain. Not in the distant sense people once feared, but in the immediate, suffocating reality where a single mistake could cost everything. Strength was no longer something people sought for ambition. It became the only thing that decided whether they would see another sunrise. Entire regions vanished before anyone could understand what was happening. Defenses meant nothing. Weapons failed in ways no one could explain. Creatures moved through destruction as if the rules of the world no longer applied to them. Plans fell apart the moment they were tested, leaving only panic and desperation behind. This was not war. It was extinction stand