The midday light suddenly dimd without warning. The sky above the ruined city changed as if soone had spilled poison into blue paint.
Sickly streaks of yellow, green, violet, and dull red bled across the sky. The sun still hung in place, but its light no longer felt pure. It filtered down in distorted hues that painted the streets and walls in unnatural colors.
Inside the house, the companions felt it before they fully saw it.
Ether around them changed.
The flow they had been carefully circulating through their cores suddenly grew restless, thicker, and heavier.
The air pressed against their skin like damp heat before a storm.
George opened one eye first. The strange light crawling across the walls caught his attention.
"Do you see that?" he muttered.
They all opened their eyes and turned.
The interior of the house now glowed in warped shades. Outside the cracked windows, the street shimred under a sky that looked diseased.
"What the hell is going on now?" Daniel asked, his brows tightening.
Confusion spread across their faces. Even Ethan, who had been focusing fiercely on controlling his Ether, opened his remaining eye and stared outside.
Myles slowly turned his head toward Lilian.
She was still relaxed. She sat upright on the sofa, gaze fixed on sothing in front of her eyes that none of them could see.
Her expression was still calm, she hadn’t realized what happened right now.
"What’s happening now, Lilian?" Myles asked.
"Hm?"
She blinked and shifted her gaze toward the sky beyond the window. She frowned deep.
"This is happening faster than I thought," she said quietly.
She stood and walked toward the window. Multicolored light reflected across her pale face as she stared upward.
"More fragnts of other realms are rging with this one," she continued. "Their Ether is spilling into this world. Soon, the Ether density in the air will beco far more abundant than before."
Myles and the others exchanged glances.
"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?" Myles asked.
"Bad," Lilian answered without hesitation. Then she added, "But it can also be good."
She turned to face them.
"With more Ether in the air, you can absorb it faster and adapt more quickly. Your training will accelerate." Her eyes darkened. "However, people who do not understand what is happening will be overwheld. The corruption rate will increase. Mutation will spread. New kinds of monsters will appear."
Silence filled the room.
To Myles and the others, the conclusion felt obvious.
"Then we just need to accelerate our adaptation," Myles said. "If the Ether is increasing, we need to match it before it crushes us."
"Yes," Lilian replied. "But you must move faster. If your core cannot keep up, the corruption will seep into you."
A subtle pressure settled over the room. No one complained or said anything. By this point they already realized how dangerous this world had beco, more than before.
They briefly exchanged determined looks. There was no ti to waste. They resud their positions, closed their eyes, and reached inward again.
This ti the Ether inside their bodies felt denser, heavier, and wilder.
They focused harder. They guided it from their cores through their muscles, bones, and organs, then pulled it back. Again and again. Sweat ford on their foreheads as the strain intensified.
Myles felt his core pulse stronger than before. The colorful strands of Ether around him grew more visible, swirling faintly around his body like mist drawn toward a vortex.
Lilian remained by the window. This was unfolding far sooner than she had predicted.
The ergence of the Seed of Power... and that damned being who nearly descended fully into this realm... had accelerated the fusion process.
She clicked her tongue softly.
If this world had already entered this stage of Etherfall, then higher beings would soon descend freely.
Her gaze shifted toward Myles.
Aura of multicolored Ether danced around his seated figure. Even without opening his eyes, pressure radiated from him in faint waves.
"I cannot let them find you," she thought, jaw tightening. "You are mine."
—
Far above the city, a ripple tore open in the air.
Flas burst outward as a figure stepped through.
The red-haired woman with blazing wings landed lightly on the rooftop of a towering building. The rift behind her snapped shut with a sharp crack.
Wind tugged at her short layered skirt as she straightened.
Her fiery wings folded behind her, embers drifting into the air before fading.
She looked around. The warped sky reflected in her golden eyes.
A sneer ford instantly.
"Lower realm..." she muttered. "This place truly feels awful."
The Ether in the air was thick. But it was tainted, distorted, and corrupted.
Her nose wrinkled slightly. Then her expression changed.
A slow, excited smile curved her lips.
"Heh. Fine. I’m sure I’ll find sothing interesting here. My intuition never lies!"
She stepped toward the edge of the building and looked down at the broken city below.
This realm had been forcefully transford by Etherfall. It had not been ready. The inhabitants were never ant to wield Ether this early.
Mutation spread everywhere. Corruption festered in the air.
Yet even so...
It was still better than the higher realms.
Up there, factions of higher beings clashed endlessly. Terrible war burned across entire skies. No one rested.
Here, at least, chaos was young and young chaos ant opportunity and less trouble.
The woman spread her blazing wings and shot into the warped sky with flas trailing behind her like a cot’s tail. From above, the city revealed itself in fractured sections.
She saw distinct zones pulsed with different densities of Ether, so glowing violently, others dim and unstable.
Barriers shimred like solid walls between territories as if invisible borders had ford overnight.
She slowed, hovering high while her golden eyes scanned the chaos below.
Monsters road certain districts freely. Other areas flickered with signs of human resistance. A faint grin touched her lips.
"I wonder how many are still alive down there?" she murmured.
—
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