The days bled into one another.In the cold blue quiet beneath the biodome, Zander trained without distraction, his routine carved into the rhythm of the deep. Every morning, he descended farther than before — five hundred meters, seven hundred, then a thousand — until the water itself felt like a living weight pressing against his body.
He no longer counted hours. Only the slow, deliberate thump of his heart, and the widening calm between each beat.
Above, Aethros watched from a rocky outcrop inside the dome, pacing back and forth in the shallows. The great beast still refused to submerge himself too far, haunted by his own fear of the water's endlessness. Yet every day he stayed, watching his companion sink into the dark and reemerge stronger. It was as if the ocean itself were testing Zander's resolve — crushing him, reshaping him, remaking him.
A month passed like a single drawn breath.Zander's body adapted in ways that defied reason. His muscles grew denser, heavier with power, yet more fluid in motion. The pressure that had once made his bones ache now wrapped around him like a second skin.
Each descent began the same: the cold bite at the surface, the silence swallowing all sound, the faint golden shimmer of the biodome lights fading as he went deeper. He'd stop around thirteen hundred meters — where the darkness was near absolute, where only the faint, ghostly bioluminescence of distant creatures marked the abyss.
There, he meditated. Floating motionless, eyes closed, body suspended between crushing pressure and stillness. The water's weight became a heartbeat, the Force within him a pulse that synchronized with the vast ocean.
He had learned to listen with his entire body.Every ripple became a vibration across his skin; every microcurrent whispered through his nerves. The deeper he went, the more alive the silence became.
Sensei's words echoed in his mind, carved into memory:
"Force is not just power. It is pressure — the will of existence pressing back against itself. To master it, you must not resist it. You must become its surface."
He understood it now. Force wasn't merely something to channel outward. It wasn't a weapon — it was a constant, invisible atmosphere, like the pressure of the deep, always there, always waiting to be felt.
And so Zander began experimenting.
He exhaled slowly, releasing a thread of Force from his core, feeling it spread outward. At first, it was shapeless — like smoke in a storm, dissipating under the crushing sea. But as days passed, he learned to condense it, to compact the energy around his body until it shimmered faintly like heat distortion.
The process was agonizing. Force wanted to flow — not be confined. Every attempt to compress it was like trying to crush wind between his hands. But his control, honed by meditative focus and the immense discipline Sensei had taught him, allowed him to keep trying, to fail a thousand times until instinct replaced effort.
On the thirtieth day, he decided to take the next step.
He gathered the Force, not around him, but into him.It was like pulling molten metal through his veins.At first, the sensation was faint — a hum beneath his skin, a static burn that made his hair rise underwater. Then it intensified. The Force, dense and heavy, pushed against his skin from both sides — from the ocean's pressure without, and the raw energy within.
The pain was blinding.
Zander's muscles spasmed as the Force sank into his flesh, grinding against the grain of his being. It tore through resistance, searing nerves, hardening tissue. Every heartbeat sent shockwaves of energy outward — but he refused to let it disperse.
His body convulsed once, twice. Blood drifted upward in a thin red thread before vanishing into the abyss.
Still, he did not stop.
He focused on the memory of Sensei's voice:
"Your flesh is a forge. Pain is the hammer. Force is the flame. Temper yourself."
Zander grit his teeth and pulled harder.The Force compressed further — wrapping him in a glowing sheath of dim golden light that flickered under the water. The very pressure of the ocean seemed to bow away from him, trembling as if acknowledging the shift.
His skin began to change.It no longer felt like flesh, but something denser — a mixture of muscle and energy fused together.
When the final surge came, it was like being struck by lightning underwater. His body convulsed — and then, abruptly, everything went still.
Zander opened his eyes.The water no longer felt heavy.
The weight that had once threatened to crush him now seemed to flow through him. He extended his hand and felt the subtle drag of the current, every molecule distinct against his skin. The Force was no longer something apart — it pulsed in harmony with his body.
He turned slowly, and the motion felt different — smoother, sharper.The resistance of the water had diminished. His movements, once sluggish beneath the immense pressure, were now graceful and effortless, as though the ocean itself were yielding to his command.
He realized he could feel the movement of the water around him — the faintest ripples, the distant sweep of a creature's tail, even the minute shifts of heat from volcanic vents below.
Every sensation carried meaning.The ocean was no longer a void — it was alive, speaking to him in vibrations and whispers.
And then, another realization — he hadn't drawn breath in nearly forty minutes. His lungs burned faintly, but the panic that once came with it was gone. His body had adapted, the Force sustaining him, recycling what air he had.
He smiled faintly."This is what Sensei meant," he murmured to himself.
When Zander finally surfaced, breaking through the shimmering layer of the biodome's boundary, Aethros was waiting. The great feline's fur was matted, his claws dug anxiously into the metallic floor.
Zander hauled himself onto the platform, droplets cascading off his hardened skin. For a moment, he just stood there, silent, eyes half-closed, breathing steadily.
Aethros stepped closer, sniffing him cautiously, sensing the difference. "You feel... heavier," he said, his deep voice laced with curiosity.
Zander flexed his fingers, watching the faint golden veins of Force that shimmered beneath his skin before fading again. "The first layer," he said softly. "My skin has been tempered."
Aethros tilted his head. "Is it over?"
Zander shook his head. "No. This is just the beginning. The muscles, the bones, the organs — all must follow."
The beast huffed, half-impressed, half-concerned. "You humans are strange. You chase pain as if it were treasure."
Zander smiled faintly. "Sometimes, it is."
He looked back at the water — his reflection blurred by the dome's faint current. The same water that had once threatened to drown him now seemed... welcoming. It moved differently against him, almost aware of him.
He flexed again, and the surface rippled as though responding.
For the first time, he didn't just endure the deep — he belonged to it.
That night, he sat beside the shallow stream within their small cavern, eyes closed, breathing slow. His mind was still, yet alive with sensation — the hum of energy under his skin, the echo of the ocean's pressure resonating through him.
The pain still lingered, dull but satisfying. Every nerve in his body felt forged anew.
Sensei's lessons replayed in his memory:
"When you temper your flesh, do not rush. Force must seep in slowly, or it will burn you hollow."
He knew what lay ahead — months of controlled suffering, refinement, and meditation. But now he understood the rhythm. The path forward was clear.
Outside the cave, Aethros slept soundly, his faint snores echoing through the cavern. The water beyond glowed faintly with the biodome's artificial light.
Zander glanced toward the darkness beyond the glass — where the deep waited, silent and infinite.
Tomorrow, he would dive again.Deeper. Longer. Harder.
Because this was only the beginning.