After getting rid of Sonia, the group had walked to the town of the Chang clan.
"Simone, are you sure you're okay?" Lucien asked, worried. He had woken up upon their arrival at the base of the hill.
"Don't worry, I'm fine. Even with the potions you gave me, I can feel it: the pain isn't physical, it's mental. I pushed past my limits," Simone replied.
When they reached the foot of the hill, the group had found Simone covered in her own blood, screaming in pain while clutching her head before collapsing unconscious.
"It's just that my mental abilities are limited, and that starfish was massive," Simone added.
"You've just got an endless headache. My arm literally detached from my body, and the other one twisted on itself!" Dina grumbled.
"Calm down. Your arms are back to normal now, so stop complaining," Aconé retorted.
"Trauma, you idiot! How could a former coward like you understand?" Dina shouted.
"Oh, you want to play that card, Miss 'I almost got killed'? Plus, the opponent who hurt you so bad ran away from Tony!" Aconé shot back with a mocking smile.
"And you weren't tortured by a cannibal who chased you, then captured by hunters!" Dina countered.
"True, but I killed the cannibal. And the hunters? They came at me fifty strong, I took out thirty before they captured me," Aconé bragged, smirking.
Dina's face twisted with anger, and she stepped forward to confront Aconé.
"Oh, you want to fight? Bring it on, I'm ready!" Aconé challenged.
"Stop it!" Both turned their heads to look at Asti, who cut them off.
"Please, stop. I'm reminding you we're literally right in front of the Chang clan's town. Even if the trees are hiding us, if you start yelling, it's not going to end well," Asti said.
Dina and Aconé glared at each other but backed off, as Asti was right.
"Simone, any news from Darlius?" Asti asked.
Getting up while holding her head, Simone answered,
"No, but he'll need a bit more time to bring us some villager clothes."
"Time? It's been literally two days since he left! I think we can trust Aconé, despite what he's done, but Darlius? He's worse. We really need to keep an eye on him," Hikiri protested.
"Calm down, Hikiri. It's not like he's going to rat us out. He'd get burned too, so I don't see why he'd do it," Asti replied.
"But, like, it's been a whole week since Tony passed out," Lucien pointed out.
The group fell silent, all eyes turning to Tony, still unconscious since his fight with Sonia.
"Now that you mention it, what was Tony fighting against?" Aconé asked.
"What do you mean, Aconé?" Hikiri questioned.
"Well, I watched their entire fight. Tony's attacks were visible, but Sonia's… I couldn't see them. From a distance, I saw her swinging her sword, then nothing. But Tony's attacks kept getting faster and stronger. And there were these tiny holes forming near the trees around us," Aconé explained.
"I think I know what it is," Dina said.
"…Well, go on, explain!" Hikiri urged impatiently.
Dina told them what Sonia had said about the ether, a force within everyone that needed to be awakened, along with the aura.
"So, those of us who haven't activated the ether in our bodies can't see Sonia's attacks," Aconé concluded.
"And she didn't tell you how to awaken it?" Hikiri asked.
"Are you serious? Even if she was arrogant, she wasn't dumb enough to give me a way to get stronger. Plus, it boosts her speed and power permanently," Dina replied.
"So, the only person who could teach us how to do it won't wake up," Hikiri sighed.
Everyone was growing impatient for Tony to wake up.
In a space wavering between darkness and instability, Tony stood, struggling to find a way out.
"Not again, not again, not again!" he repeated endlessly.
He believed he was still trapped in his own consciousness.
"A solution, a solution, a solution! I can't stay here!" He began shouting, "Who locked me in here? I've already spent over five thousand years in my consciousness, and that's enough! I won't let myself be chained again!"
Realizing he could use his abilities, Tony combined his lightning and fire, creating a massive tornado made of flames and electricity.
He kept fueling it, developing a new technique:
Stellar Destroyer.
The tornado, which started at Tony's size, grew twenty times larger, radiating phenomenal power.
But such energy, produced by Tony while in the Human Realm, had devastating effects on his mental body. Even his physical body began to convulse.
Feeling his mental form starting to fracture, Tony, his face filled with madness, determination, and rage, declared,
"If I have to go through this again, I'd rather bet my life to get out. I'm ready to die just to escape this place!"
Suddenly, the massive tornado struck the deep, shifting black sky. The entire space began to tremble.
At the point of impact, distortions appeared. The deep blackness shattered multiple times, giving way to fleeting reflections of purple, red, and silver.
Everything around Tony grew chaotic. The colors eventually merged into a black vortex.
Tony, shocked, quickly understood what was happening, as if his fire and lightning were explaining it to him. His lightning, in high quantities, had forced the chaos to take form, and the fire made it increasingly unstable.
Tony noticed he was starting to float, against his will.
"The gravity's been reversed," he thought.