“So this aether is what lets you access forces?”
“Yeah, basically. You channel it through specific pathways in your body, and depending on the sequence it flows through, it determines how your force manifests. That’s what creates force skills. It also helps that different force alignnts resonate with specific types of aether. Like Breeze Force with Wind aether, Ember-Ash with Fire aether, and so on.”
Vi stared at the swirling colours drifting through the air, clearly amazed. O just smiled at him.
“So she can control vines?”
“Yeah. Her alignnt falls under Nature Force, so she’s attuned to that aspect of aether.”
“She’s really skilled.”
“Well… it helps that she’s the God Spark of Nature.”
“Like how we’re the God Spark of Wind?”
“In her case, she was born one. With us… it just kind of happened.”
“Hai.”
Vi’s eyes shifted back to the battlefield. “That deer she summoned is really pretty. All golden and… nature-like. Kinda mystical.”
O let out a small chuckle. “That’s technically a hind.”
“…What’s the difference?”
“I can’t be bothered to care,” O said lightly. “But it’s part of her Unique Skill. One of the pages from her Mythbloom Codex. Funny enough, it’s the sa hind that was once pursued by soone I defeated earlier in this tournant in mythology.”
“We have Unique Skills too, right?”
“Yeah. Mine kind of takes on the characteristics of others, absorbs them into our body, refines them, and then brings them back out stronger and purer than before.”
“And the ones we take from… they get stronger too?”
“Seems like it. But there’s a limit to how many we can hold at once.”
“No wonder Cy was fighting so hard to keep that panda away,” Vi chuckled. “Still… it’d be pretty cool to turn into a panda. Fall out of trees, walk it off, eat bamboo…”
“Yeah,” O said, flinching slightly. “Maybe then Jenny wouldn’t try to kill for what happened earlier when we landed in the Expanse… especially if she thinks you suffered at all, even though you weren’t awake.”
Sorting through the mories, Vi tilted his head slightly. “I still don’t get it. If aether can be circulated through the body to use forces, why do people rely so heavily on the system instead of doing it manually?”
“Cy has a working theory,” O replied. “But from what we’ve seen, doing it manually is far too taxing for most people. It’s just easier to rely on the system.”
He paused briefly.
“But don’t look down on them so quickly. Even relying on the system, those sa people were still difficult for us to deal with. They have the talent to make good use of what’s available to them, especially the more gifted ones.”
O’s expression shifted slightly, more thoughtful now.
“The smartest among them don’t treat the system as a crutch. They treat it as a tool… a ans of access. Then they push beyond it. It’s actually pretty interesting. For all the questions we should be asking about the system, it keeps proving its value the more we see of it.”
“…Hmm.” Vi nodded slowly, munching on a cookie.
O blinked. “You just made that?”
“Yeah. Good cookie.”
O let out a quiet sigh. “It took so long to get used to Creation Force, and here you are casually making snacks…”
It was probably a good thing this was all happening in his mind. If the Vendor ever heard this, he’d fight both Auserre and Oceanna just to strangle him.
Vi glanced off slightly. “Seems like so of our new friends aren't pretty capable without relying on the system.”
“For now,” O replied. “They’ll use what they can. But…”
A faint smile ford.
“They’re also very good test subjects. I’m sure we’ll find a way to reduce their reliance on the system… and learn more about this whole aether and force world we’ve found ourselves in.”
“Hai. That guy the plant lady is fighting is really cool. He blows into the trumpet and deflects everything with soundwaves.”
“Yeah. Archangel Gabriel. I don’t know what i thought he’d actually be like, but… he’s pretty entertaining.”
“Hehe… bwooo,” Vi tried to mimic the sound, puffing his cheeks slightly as he blew.
The air in front of him trembled.
A ripple ford in the air.
Then—
A small pulse pushed outward.
Oh blinked.
“…Huh.”
That wasn’t Sound Force.
Vi had unconsciously manipulated the wind itself, compressing and vibrating it to replicate the sa effect. The frequency, the pressure, the release—
All of it mirrored what Gabriel had done.
Unfortunately for Silvie, she didn’t share the sa amusent for Gabriel’s antics.
Her vines lashed out toward him, striking just as he raised his trumpet. A barrier ford around him, rippling violently as the impact reverberated across its surface.
Silvie braced herself.
The vibrations didn’t dissipate.
They were drawn in.
Pulled back into the trumpet.
Then released.
A shockwave burst outward.
Silvie flinched, hands flying to her ears as the force hit. The Golden Hind stepped in front of her, taking the brunt of the impact and shielding her from the blast.
“Wow… that one was quite strong,” Gabriel said, clearly impressed.
“You really are powerful.”
“Yeah… I’ve noticed,” Silvie replied, her voice edged with annoyance.
But even as she spoke, her mind was already working.
She had a rough idea of how Gabriel fought now.
His trumpet wasn’t just producing sound.
It was gathering it.
Every impact, every strike, every ripple in the air around him was being captured. Stored. Refined. Then sent back out however he chose.
Which ant—
Every attack she launched at him wasn’t just being blocked.
It was being fed back into him.
Her vines struck, and the force behind them didn’t disappear. It lingered, folded into those reverberations, building within his control.
And the worst part…
Those shockwaves weren’t just offensive.
He was using them defensively too.
Each ti she attacked, the barrier around him absorbed the impact, strengthening the next release. The more pressure she applied, the more power he gained in return.
A cycle.
One that only escalated.
Silvie narrowed her eyes.
From what she could tell—
There didn’t seem to be a clear limit to how much he could stack.
Which ant if she kept attacking the sa way…
She’d eventually be overwheld by her own power, sent back at her in a form she couldn’t control.
And so Gabriel’s attacks continued, each one aid at Silvie and the Golden Hind.
At first, she held her ground.
Then—
Gabriel’s brow lifted slightly.
His attacks… were starting to miss.
Not by much.
Just enough.
A step too early. A fraction too late. A trajectory that should have connected, slipping past her by inches.
Silvie’s movents had changed.
Both her and the Hind began to move along faint, verdant trails, their paths no longer direct, but flowing. The ground beneath them seed to adjust subtly, guiding each step as a soft green glow threaded through her motion.
[Verdant Glide]
Silvie and the Golden Hind move along naturally shifting paths. Terrain subtly adjusts beneath them, allowing fluid, uninterrupted movent. Incoming attacks lose precision, often missing by narrow margins as if misaligned with her position.
Gabriel tilted his head slightly, watching more carefully now.
“…Oh?”
Silvie caught the look.
And smiled.
Seeing his confusion begin to form, she couldn’t help the small chuckle that slipped out.
“This Golden Hind isn’t just for show,” she said lightly. “My buddy here actually does sothing.”
“Is it because of that Codex your scarf unraveled into?” Gabriel asked, completely unfazed. “And you’re from Amunar, right? Why are you even wearing a scarf? Aren’t you hot already? That doesn’t look very comfortable…”
He kept going.
And going.
And going.
His attacks didn’t stop because he wanted them to.
They stopped because—
Silvie had.
She wasn’t attacking anymore.
She was only moving.
Trying to tune him out, Silvie kept track of ti internally, her focus shifting inward as she reviewed the structure of her ability.
Unique Skill: [Mythbloom Codex]
Type: Myth Embodint
Force: Pristine Nature Force
Description:
Manifests a Mythbloom Codex, a living archive of myth woven through nature. Each “page” embodies a botanical interpretation of a myth or archetype, allowing the user to assu distinct combat forms that reshape abilities, presence, and influence over the battlefield.
Rather than simple techniques, each page represents a complete shift in expression of force, altering how the user moves, attacks, and interacts with the environnt.
Effect:
User may activate one Myth Page at a ti, entering a temporary state aligned with that myth’s nature.
Each page grants a unique set of abilities, traits, and battlefield effects
Activation lasts 3–5 minutes, depending on aether stability and resonance
Switching pages requires disengagent and incurs a cooldown based on prior strain
Repeated use of the sa page increases efficiency but reduces adaptability
Rapid switching between pages risks destabilizing aether flow
Core Traits:
[Myth Embodint]
Each page is not rely a skillset, but a transformation. The user’s aether, movents, and presence align with the invoked myth, altering force manifestation at a fundantal level.
[Resonance Growth]
As Silvie gains experience with a page, her control, efficiency, and expression improve. Overuse can lead to resonance fatigue, reducing effectiveness over ti.
[Botanical Manifestation]
All myth expressions are rooted in nature. Constructs and effects manifest as flora, growth, or organic phenona, maintaining cohesion with Pristine Nature Force.
Notes:
Designed for adaptability across combat scenarios
Effectiveness depends on timing, page selection, and battlefield awareness
Poor balance between pages may disrupt overall performance
Getting a better feel for Gabriel’s fighting capabilities, Silvie knew she had just over two minutes left with the Golden Hind. That was enough. The battlefield had already shifted in her favor, and she wasn’t about to waste the advantage.
She moved.
[Verdant Snare: Threadbind]
Thin vines snapped out of the ground without warning, wrapping tightly around Gabriel’s limbs and locking him in place for just a mont.
Silvie was already in motion.
A spear woven from layered vines ford in her grasp as she closed the distance, driving it forward with precision.
Gabriel smiled.
Finally.
He focused entirely on Silvie, preparing to receive the attack, to read it, absorb it, refine it—
Completely ignoring the Golden Hind charging from the side.
Silvie didn’t hesitate. If anything, she leaned into it. He was doing exactly what she expected.
Gabriel braced himself despite the restraints, ready to take the impact.
Then a sharp pain shot through his leg.
“Huh?”
His focus broke for just a fraction of a second as the sensation spread. The pain didn’t match what he was seeing. The spear ca from one direction, but the impact landed sowhere else entirely. His body reacted to strikes that didn’t align with his vision, each hit arriving slightly off from where and when it should have.
Nothing aligned.
Unlawfully taken from , this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Gabriel’s eyes sharpened as he processed what was happening. He had seen sothing like this before when Mahoraga fought her, so the disconnect between sight and sensation wasn’t entirely new. But this was different. The distortion went further. His sense of timing no longer matched what he was seeing, and even the spatial positioning of her attacks felt unstable, like his perception couldn’t properly track where the strike actually existed.
“…You didn’t do this to that Indian guy, did you?” Gabriel said, still analyzing even as the hits continued to land. “I’ve fought him before, so I can tell you ssed with how he perceived your attacks. But this…”
Another impact struck, just slightly off again.
“This is new.”
He tilted his head slightly, trying to follow the motion of her spear. “When I think I’ve got the frequency of your attack… it doesn’t line up with what I’m seeing. And the spatial part…” he let out a small laugh, despite the situation, “…it’s like my brain’s losing track of where it actually is.”
Another hit landed.
“Timing’s off, position’s off… everything’s just slightly out of sync.”
He grinned.
“That’s really cool.”
Another strike connected.
“…Ow.”
“Would you shut up already?”
Kei Y’s voice cut through the exchange as a pristine aether-forged projectile shot across the field, aid straight for Gabriel. With his guard sleeves destroyed, these were the only projectiles he had left, ones he had crafted earlier and scattered across the ground.
He had been trying to support Mia.
But Gabriel’s constant talking had drawn his agro instead.
“Hey… that’s not very nice… ow.”
“Didn’t you learn you shouldn’t throw things at people? …ow.”
“You’ve got a really strong throwing arm… ow.”
“Kind of a sha you’re already this worn out… ow.”
“Thanks for dealing with that chicken, though… ow.”
Gabriel winced lightly between each comnt, yet sohow kept talking, his tone more amused than bothered.
“I’ll admit, even I’m a little surprised you beat him. Though, to be fair, he wasn’t using his full strength. You basically fought him on easy mode—”
Bang.
Bang.
The projectiles slamd toward his face in quick succession.
Gabriel tilted his head, the impacts dispersing against layered sound before they could reach him.
“…You really aid for my eyes?” he said, feigning a small pout. “I have to say, I’m a bit saddened by your ferocity.”
Silvie shot Kei Y an annoyed look.
That interruption had given Gabriel just enough ti.
Enough to build.
Enough to stabilize.
Enough to start layering his defense again.
“Don’t look at him like that,” Gabriel added casually, as faint distortions rippled around him. “He didn’t do anything except hurt my feelings.”
His smile returned, lighter now, but with sothing more settled behind it.
“The truth is… I don’t actually need to be attacked to defend myself. Or to attack, for that matter.”
He tapped his trumpet lightly against his shoulder.
“I knew from the start that relying on my opponent was a fatal weakness of my Force. So I fixed it.”
A faint hum spread outward, subtle but constant.
“That’s why I make it a habit to keep my domain active,” he continued, eyes flicking toward Silvie. “Just in case I run into soone smart.”
His smile widened slightly.
“Soone like you.”
"Welco to my domain [Reverb Cathedral]"
Silvie glanced around, her senses stretching outward, searching for any shift in the environnt that would hint at Gabriel’s domain.
Nothing.
No distortion. No pressure. No visible change.
“…That doesn’t make sense.”
“Doesn’t make much sense looking for it,” Gabriel replied casually as the vines binding him loosened and fell away. He rolled his shoulders slightly, as if shaking off the restraint. “Like I said… I keep it active.”
He lifted the trumpet to his lips.
The reverberations he had absorbed from Kei Y condensed and fired forward like a cannon, tearing through the space where Silvie stood—
And missed.
The blast carved through empty ground, the trajectory just slightly off.
Gabriel’s eyes flickered.
He had read her position.
But not correctly.
Before he could adjust—
Impact.
A sharp strike landed against his back.
Then another.
Silvie had already closed the distance, her movents flowing unnaturally as her strikes ca in rapid succession. A palm folded into a punch, the punch shifted into an elbow, each motion blending into the next without pause. Every hit landed cleanly, slipping past his perception just enough to deny him a proper read.
At the sa ti, the Golden Hind charged again.
This ti—
Gabriel reacted.
A layered barrier of compressed sound ford instantly in front of him, rippling outward as it t the Hind’s charge. The impact didn’t stop it completely, but it slowed it, the force dispersing across vibrating layers that absorbed and redistributed the pressure.
Behind the shield, Gabriel smiled.
“…Ah.”
Even while being struck, his focus sharpened.
“Ugh.”
Silvie’s head snapped to the side as Gabriel’s elbow struck her jaw, but she steadied herself imdiately and continued her assault without breaking rhythm. Her movents flowed seamlessly into the next sequence, transitioning from strike to strike as if nothing had happened.
But sothing was different.
Her attacks weren’t slipping through anymore.
Each strike she layered, each shift in angle and timing that should have broken through his defense, was t and stopped cleanly. Blocked. Redirected. Intercepted.
Her eyes narrowed slightly.
She didn’t have ti to process it.
The air above her shifted.
She felt it before she saw it and moved instantly, her body slipping back as the trumpet ca crashing down into the ground where she had just been standing, the impact cracking the terrain beneath it.
Silvie flowed backward, her feet finding the altered terrain as she moved with it, weaving between offense and defense, using every shift in the battlefield to maintain pressure while avoiding his counters. But unlike before, the advantage wasn’t fully hers anymore.
Gabriel had changed.
He wasn’t just receiving.
He was fighting.
His movents carried a strange rhythm now, one that disrupted her timing just enough to throw off her flow. He blocked, slipped, and countered in the sa motion, his actions no longer delayed by the need to interpret her attacks.
Seeing the confusion flicker across her face, Gabriel smiled.
“Don’t look so surprised,” he said, casually deflecting another strike as he stepped into her space. “You’re talented, I’ll give you that. Difficult too.”
He shifted again, intercepting her next motion before it could fully form.
“But don’t forget, I’m a Specialist.”
Another step, another interruption.
“And not just that. I’m the kind who can fight above my level too.”
His smile widened slightly.
“I’m just as talented as Michael. And as annoying as he is, he’s a good benchmark.”
The air around him began to hum, subtle at first, then steadily building as the vibrations layered over one another.
“With him around, I can better guarantee my role as the wings of my young lord and his destiny.”
The hum sharpened.
“Speaking of wings…”
[Ascend]
The space around him trembled as compressed sound gathered behind his back, forming wings of layered vibration that shimred faintly in the air. The mont they ford, his presence shifted.
Then he moved.
Accelerating so suddenly that his figure blurred from one position to the next, reappearing directly in front of Silvie with his trumpet already mid-swing.
Silvie’s expression didn’t falter.
“Heh… you’re quick,” she said, a grin forming as the Golden Hind flared beside her, its glow intensifying as her floral robes shimred and the terrain responded beneath her feet.
“But you’re not the only one.”
[Blessing of the Untouched]
While in continuous motion, Silvie gains partial mitigation against incoming damage. Attacks lose sharpness and impact as they approach her.
This effect weakens significantly if she is slowed, restrained, or forced to remain stationary.
Gabriel blew into his trumpet as he advanced toward Silvie, layered vibrations rolling outward in controlled waves. The sound carried force, structured and deliberate.
This ti, it barely did anything.
His expression shifted slightly,, as he tried to understand what had changed. The response he expected wasn’t there. The reverberations still spread, but they weren’t interacting with her the sa way anymore.
Then the battlefield itself began to change.
The golden-green glow intensified, deepening into sothing richer, more saturated. The ground beneath him thickened as the flora expanded rapidly, not just growing but reinforcing themselves, layering into sothing denser and more responsive. The terrain didn’t feel passive anymore. It felt active.
[Verdant Surge: Overgrowth]
Everything accelerated at once. The root network spread further in an instant, weaving through the battlefield with far greater presence. Growth that had once been controlled and asured now moved with overwhelming montum, feeding into itself as if the entire field had been pushed into a higher state.
Gabriel slowed his advance slightly, observing.
“…Hmm?”
He looked around, taking it in properly this ti. This wasn’t just an increase in output. The nature of the field had shifted. It no longer felt like sothing she was controlling from above. It felt like she was inside it, moving with it, part of it.
He tracked her again.
Silvie moved without resistance. Her steps flowed along paths that seed to form beneath her before she even committed to them. The faint golden trails she had been leaving earlier were no longer fading. They thickened, rooted, and spread, becoming extensions of the field itself.
Her expression caught his attention.
She looked… excited.
Focused, but in a way that was almost playful, like she was enjoying the shift as much as she was using it. She hadn’t even noticed her glasses slipping from her face, lost sowhere within the overgrowth.
The pressure around her wasn’t subtle anymore.
Gabriel smiled.
“You know, you kids from Amunar are seriously talented.”
His tone stayed light, but there was more focus behind it now.
“I have to admit, even watching your Sound Force teammate earlier gave a few ideas I hadn’t considered before. Bit annoying to say, but even as a Soldier, I wouldn’t be too confident taking him cleanly. If he were a Specialist…”
He exhaled softly, amused.
“Still, I should thank him. Because unfortunately for you, I picked up a few things.”
He raised the trumpet again and blew into it.
The air didn’t just vibrate.
It held the vibration.
The space around them began to hum. The reverberations no longer needed to be gathered through attacks. They were already there, layered into the space itself, waiting to be shaped.
Silvie didn’t hesitate.
If anything, she laughed.
“Hahaha, that nitwit inspired you? Let’s see what was so inspiring.”
The Golden Hind moved first, surging forward with far greater weight behind its steps. Each stride left behind a golden path that didn’t fade, instead embedding itself into the field as a permanent extension of her control.
This ti, those paths didn’t stay empty.
From them, growth followed imdiately. Petals gathered, vines twisted, and wooden forms took shape without pause. Constructs didn’t need to be summoned. They were forming as a natural result of the field itself expanding.
Silvie stepped forward behind the charge, her movent perfectly in sync with the terrain.
Everything around her was already moving with her.
“Try keeping up.”
“You don’t have to tell twice.”
The layered reverberations already filling the space responded instantly. Attacks launched from all directions at once, striking toward Silvie from every possible angle.
The Golden Hind moved, slipping through the chaos as it closed the distance and collided with Gabriel. At the sa ti, Silvie darted through the barrage, her movent flowing along the terrain as if the attacks were always just off from where she was.
The field answered her.
Constructs rose.
Vines twisted and hardened intoBriar Soldiers, their forms stabilising as they launched rose-lances in staggered volleys. Alongside them, theRose Revenant: Martial Bloom stepped forward, its movents fluid and seamless as it mirrored Silvie’s combat mastery, shifting between styles without pause.
This was why she chose the Exalted class.
Not just power.
Numbers.
An army that could fight like her.
For most opponents, that alone was overwhelming.
Gabriel, however, only laughed.
Reverberations gathered around him, condensing into form as he shaped them into constructs of his own. Without hesitation, he launched them outward, targeting Silvie and the Hind directly while barely sparing a glance for the rose constructs closing in.
The clash that followed was violent.
His attacks didn’t just et hers, they erupted.
The advance of both Silvie and the Hind slowed under the pressure as dense, large spear-like constructs ford from compressed sound and fell across the battlefield like rain.
They struck the ground—
—and didn’t stop.
Each impact rebounded, launching back upward at new angles, turning the entire area into a shifting storm of ricocheting force. The rhythm built rapidly, overlapping strikes creating a chaotic pattern that didn’t lose any power with each bounce.
A battlefield-wide barrage.
Kei Y, still down, barely managed to gather enough aether to defend himself as the storm spread toward him.
“Dammit, Kei…” he muttered under his breath, forcing himself up just enough to react. “You and your stupid bouncy house had to give this headache new ideas.”
Silvie didn’t see it that way.
She moved.
The spears raining down weren’t a threat to her anymore, they were footholds.
She stepped onto one mid-air, then another, chaining her movent upward as she kicked off each ricocheting spear, using Gabriel’s own attack to close the distance.
A lunatic approach.
And it worked.
The Martial Blooms followed behind her, their movents just as fluid, just as aggressive, turning the chaotic battlefield into a layered assault from every angle.
Gabriel’s smile widened.
He raised his trumpet and blew into it, sound folding inward as a shield ford around him just in ti to take the impact.
Silvie’s strike hit first.
Then the constructs.
Then—
The Golden Hind ca down from above.
It stomped.
The impact slamd into the shield, cracks spreading instantly across its surface as the accumulated force buckled under the weight. For a brief mont it held.
Then it shattered.
The force drove Gabriel straight into the ground, his body hitting hard as the remaining pressure followed through.
He lay there for a second, rubbing the side of his head.
“…Could’ve sworn you said that Hind only had two minutes left.”
Silvie landed lightly, not even out of breath.
“Yeah. Technically it should’ve disappeared by now.”
She let that sit for a mont.
“But it’s not just people’s sense of ti it can ss with.”
Her gaze flicked briefly toward the field around them.
“It can distort the environnt too. Nature’s sense of ti.”
Gabriel paused.
Then it clicked.
“…So it’s not just sustaining itself,” he said, pushing himself up slowly. “It’s stretching the condition it exists under.”
Vi’s voice chid in from the side, clearly entertained.
“Not only is it made from Nature Force, it’s got traits of Ti in it too. That’s actually pretty neat.”
Gabriel didn’t share the enthusiasm.
His attention had already shifted.
There was sothing on him now.
A mark.
Verdant-gold.
The mont he noticed it, the battlefield felt different.
Hostile in a way it hadn’t been before.
The Golden Hind moved again, brushing past him as it advanced.
This ti—
The damage was imdiate.
And heavier than before.
Gabriel’s expression tightened slightly as the hit registered, deeper than it should’ve been.
Then another mark ford.
Layering over the first.
The Martial Blooms closed in on him.
Each one struck differently.
One flowed into a sharp Wing Chun chain, another followed with a Muay Thai elbow, a third shifted into a grappling motion mid-strike. There was no pattern, no consistency, and with the distortion already affecting him, the timing only grew worse.
What he saw didn’t match what landed.
What he reacted to ca too late.
Gabriel clicked his tongue lightly and flapped his wings, pulling himself into the air to break the pressure.
The Golden Hind was already there.
It surged toward him mid-ascent, but Gabriel reacted instantly this ti, twisting his body as his wing struck across its path, deflecting it just enough to interrupt its charge.
At the sa ti, feathers of compressed reverberation ford and fired outward.
They struck the Hind mid-motion and drove it down into the ground with explosive force.
Gabriel didn’t stop moving.
He weaved through the air, avoiding the Briar Soldiers and Martial Blooms as they chased upward, his movent clean and efficient now despite the distortion still lingering at the edges of his perception.
Feathers rained from above in layered volleys, each one carrying condensed force as they struck across the battlefield.
And through it all—
He kept track of Silvie.
His domain humd.
The air around him tightened, vibrating as reverberations gathered without needing to be fed. He drew them in, compressing everything into a single point as he raised his trumpet.
Then he blew.
A cannon of sound tore forward.
The pressure alone warped the air as it surged toward her.
Silvie’s excitent faltered.
She felt it.
That wasn’t sothing she could just move through.
Her mind raced, trying to find a way to deal with it, but there wasn’t enough ti to set anything up properly.
The blast hit.
The impact ruptured across the battlefield, tearing through the ground as the shockwave spread outward, shaking everything in its path.
For a mont—
It looked like it landed cleanly.
Then blue-silver petals blood at the point of impact, each petal carrying a cyan sheen.
They spread outward in a sudden burst, catching what remained of the force as they scattered and drifted.
Silvie was still hit.
The impact had already reached her before the mitigation fully ford, her body thrown back as the remaining force carried through.
But it wasn’t enough to finish her.
The Golden Hind reached her first, catching her before she slamd into the ground, absorbing what was left of the montum.
Petals settled around her as the damage began to stabilise, the lingering effects of the bloom working to keep her from collapsing.
But Silvie felt sothing different.
It wasn’t just healing.
The petals drifting around her carried a faint cyan glow, subtle at first, then deepening as they settled against her skin and dissolved into her body.
Her injuries closed faster than expected.
A soft cyan sheen spread across her form, wrapping around her like a second layer. Strength filled her limbs, not gradually, but all at once, as if sothing had pushed her baseline upward.
Her breathing steadied.
Her body felt lighter.
Everything responded better.
It wasn’t just recovery.
There was enhancent.
“…Tch.”
Kei Y wiped the sweat from his brow, still crouched low as he forced his aether to move. Sensing the danger from that attack, he had thrown a few orbs, intercepting the blast just enough to keep it from fully overwhelming her while making sure Lethal Bloom would trigger.
“Even I felt that from here…”
“…and I wasn’t even the target.”
The orbs burst near Silvie, and the mont they did, the petals that blood from the impact carried that sa cyan tint. Tideborne Eclipse force spread through them, blending into her recovery, but also reinforcing it, pushing beyond simple healing.
The glow around her deepened slightly.
Not enough to be overwhelming.
But enough to matter.
Gabriel staggered in the air.
The constant hum that had filled the battlefield weakened, then cracked as his domain began to collapse. The layered reverberations unraveled, the pressure fading as the stored vibrations dispersed into nothing.
He exhaled, unsteady.
“What… were those made of?”
His eyes lingered on the remnants of the orbs, still trying to process how they had survived that level of force before detonating on their own.
For a mont, that was all his focus held.
And because of that—
He missed it.
The Golden Hind, which had dominated the battlefield until now, finally dissolved, its form breaking into fading strands of verdant-gold light as its ti ca to an end.
Silvie stood where it had been.
Her Mythbloom Codex rested open in her hand, its pages shifting softly as Pristine Nature aether gathered around her.
She saw it clearly.
His breathing.
The instability in his stance.
The absence of that overwhelming pressure that had defined him monts ago.
This was an opening.
And she wasn’t about to waste it.
The battlefield responded.
All remaining constructs moved at once, not attacking, but collapsing inward. Briar Soldiers, Martial Blooms, every piece of her field broke apart into petals, wood, and flowing strands of aether as they converged in front of her.
They didn’t disappear.
They reford.
Layer by layer, the mass of rose petals and vines twisted and compressed, taking on a single shape. Wings spread outward, vast and structured, each feather carved from layered petals and hardened growth. A body ford beneath them, dense and reinforced, pulsing with the full weight of her Pristine Aether.
A giant rose owl with a startlingly with sheen.
Its presence alone pressed against the battlefield, the surrounding growth bending slightly toward it as if acknowledging sothing higher in the order of the field.
Silvie’s golden floral robes flared, with the remnants of the Hind’s influence lingering around her as everything she had built fed into this one construct.
She didn’t hesitate.
“Rose Lotus Owl Bloom.”
The owl lifted its head.
A deep, resonant call tore from it, low and heavy, carrying across the battlefield like a pulse through the air itself. The sound wasn’t just heard, it was felt, the remaining growth reacting to it as the entire field aligned for a single release.
Then it moved.
Not fast in the traditional sense.
But inevitable.
The space between it and Gabriel closed as it surged forward, wings pulling inward as all that gathered force condensed into the strike.
Gabriel looked up.
The impact ca down.
The mont it connected, the battlefield gave way. The ground beneath them fractured violently as the force drove through everything in its path, the accumulated power of her entire field releasing in a single, overwhelming point.
The surrounding area collapsed inward, vines snapping, roots tearing, petals scattering as the shockwave spread outward and carved through what remained of the terrain.
When the force finally settled—
There was nothing left at the center.
Only the aftermath of the strike, and the fading remnants of rose petals drifting through the air.
A beam of light descended.
Gabriel’s form flickered within it for a brief mont before disappearing entirely, his body removed from the arena.
Silvie stood at the edge of the impact zone, her breathing steady as the last of the owl’s form broke apart into petals and faded.
She collasped from expending all of her aether, her brown curly hair slicked with sweat as it covered her face
Kei Y forced himself up and made his way over to her, still a little unsteady. He reached down, picked up her oversized glasses, and placed them back onto her face. They slipped slightly, settling into their usual crooked position.
He dropped down beside her without another word.
The two of them lay there, watching Mia’s fight continue in the distance. Neither of them had the energy to move anymore.
“Thanks for the help,” Silvie said quietly.
“No worries,” Kei Y replied, eyes still on the battlefield. “You think Mia’s going to win?”
Silvie tilted her head slightly as she watched.
“Hard to say… considering who she’s fighting.”
“Hmmm…”
Kei Y’s gaze lingered for a mont longer.
Then—
His body suddenly stiffened.
His eyes widened.
All the colour drained from his face as sothing shifted internally.
“Vi… what did you do?” O’s voice ca out sharp, imdiate. “I looked away for one second.”
“Hm?” Vi responded, completely unfazed. “I was just looking at Cy’s force alignnt. Got curious.”
A pause.
“…So you used it on us?”
“Hai.” Vi nodded, clearly pleased. “Wanted to see how it works from the inside.”
O froze.
Then panicked.
Before he could even respond properly—
Cy appeared in front of them.
“O… what the actual—”
“Wait, wait, wait, it wasn’t ,” O said quickly, imdiately pointing. “It was him.”
Vi didn’t even look up.
He sat there happily, munching on a cookie while staring straight at Cy, eyes focused in a way that clearly said he was studying sothing far too seriously for how relaxed he looked.
anwhile—
Their actual body didn’t respond.
Didn’t blink.
Didn’t move.
Locked.
Completely frozen.
Back in the arena, Silvie laid beside Kei Y, still catching her breath.
She hadn’t noticed yet.
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