The trainer's gaze was steady…
a steadiness that did not resemble curiosity, but reading.
He was not looking at the body of a child standing before him, but at something deeper, something Aris had tried all along to keep behind a curtain of silence.
The man stepped forward only once, but his presence stretched around them like a long shadow.
He said calmly, as if describing a natural phenomenon:
"Your body… has adapted to spiritual energy."
He paused briefly, then his eyes narrowed.
"You also have something like a dantian… but it is completely dark. So mysterious that I feel as if my gaze itself is being pulled toward it… and turning into nothing."
A short silence passed.
Then he added in a lower voice:
"It… feels like looking into the abyss."
Aris did not respond.
But inside him, the dantian moved slowly…
a heavy rotation, as if the words had awakened a hidden awareness within it.
The trainer raised his gaze again.
"Have you started training in spiritual energy… and already formed your dantian?"
Aris answered in a neutral tone, free of pride as well as humility:
"Yes."
The trainer studied him longer this time.
"And since when have you begun using the Eternal Ascension techniques?"
"This morning."
The man's expression did not change much.
Only his eyebrow lifted by an almost invisible amount.
"Oh… and you came here quickly. It seems you carry an early longing for combat… despite your young age."
Aris said nothing.
Silence, sometimes… was more honest than any answer.
After a moment, the trainer said:
"But at your age, it would have been better to start by going to the combat foundation halls. There, children learn how to fight first… before burdening their bodies with spiritual energy."
Aris replied calmly:
"I have watched combat since I was three years old. I understand the basic principles… more than it seems."
He paused.
Then added, his voice slightly lower:
"I do not want to wait. I want my battles to begin now… not later."
The trainer looked at him for a long time.
Then he murmured, as if speaking to himself:
"What a small spirit… that does not know stillness."
He fell silent for a moment.
"So… did you absorb spiritual energy and form the Origin Spark?"
"Yes."
"And how many other sparks have you formed?"
Aris thought for a second.
"I did not count them… but they should exceed a hundred."
At that moment,
astonishment appeared.
Very briefly… but it was real.
Then it vanished, as if the man were used to burying his reactions before they were born.
He said calmly:
"It seems we have a rising genius here."
Then he turned.
"Come."
They walked together toward an empty arena.
Around them, the duels continued without stopping. No one looked. No one slowed down.
The children here were not children in the way the world understood.
They were closer to forging machines… created to be hammered until they reached their limit.
The trainer suddenly asked:
"It seems no one cares about you here… how do you feel about that? You are—without a doubt—a genius."
Aris did not answer immediately.
Old words slipped into his mind… words he once heard in a calm voice under a gray sky.
Then he said:
"Someone once told me that the source of talent means nothing in this world. Geniuses… are many. Disasters are more."
He lifted his eyes slightly.
"What truly matters… is what you will become."
The trainer exhaled.
A faint smile passed across his lips.
"These resounding words again… do you have a connection to Elder Varin?"
Aris said, "Yes. He looks after me sometimes."
The man paused half a step.
"Then you are not a passing child within the clan."
Silence.
Then he asked with quiet curiosity:
"What is your name, boy? And which family do you belong to?"
He paused briefly, then continued:
"It is fine if you do not wish to tell me."
For the first time… a faint breath left Aris.
A breath that carried no fatigue… but a small surrender to an unchanging truth.
"My name is Aris."
He stopped.
"As for my family… I do not know them. Everything related to them is always classified as forbidden files."
Something moved in the trainer's eyes.
It was not pity.
But understanding.
"Oh… I see."
He looked ahead as he said:
"Some knowledge… becomes a curse when it comes before its time."
Then he turned to him.
"Knowledge without the strength to contain it… can be a sin."
They stopped before the arena.
"Just increase your strength. And do not burden your heart with what has not yet reached its time."
The trainer gestured toward one of the children sitting near the edge, catching his breath after a long duel.
"Lin Mu."
The child stood immediately.
There was no hesitation in his movement… no rush.
Only clean response.
The trainer approached him and whispered a few words that did not reach Aris, but the child's eyes shone with understanding.
He nodded.
Then entered the arena.
The two remained facing each other.
No bow.
No courtesies.
The child said calmly:
"Lin Mu."
"Aris."
Silence fell.
Then—
they moved.
The fight did not begin with an explosion.
But… with the erasure of distance.
A side step from Lin Mu, light as if the ground pushed him forward. Aris responded with a tight rotation, his fist launching toward the ribs — a clean strike, without decoration.
Lin Mu blocked it with his palm, and instead of retreating, he entered the killing distance.
A shoulder slammed into Aris's chest.
The air shook.
Aris stepped back half a step… only to lower his center of gravity and launch a cutting kick toward the knee.
Lin Mu avoided it with a rise that was barely visible.
"Excellent…"
The thought passed through Aris's mind like a flash.
Blows followed.
A fist.
An elbow.
A twist.
A takedown that did not complete.
There were no wasted movements.
Every strike… was an attempt to end something.
Every dodge… was the beginning of an attack.
With every passing second, a strange feeling began to slip into Aris.
This child…
was reading him.
After only three exchanges, Lin Mu understood the rhythm of his breathing. After five, he began predicting the angles of his attacks.
"What is this level of instinct…?"
His eyes sharpened.
For a moment—
the old warrior inside him rose to the surface.
His rhythm suddenly changed.
A shoulder feint… followed by a low fist toward the liver.
Lin Mu was late by a fraction of a second.
But it was enough.
Aris grabbed his arm, spun behind him, and threw him down with a movement that had broken the backs of grown men in another life.
But—
before he could secure control…
the child slipped free in a spiral motion and twisted around his wrist, trying to reverse the joint.
Aris smiled inwardly.
"Beautiful…"
Minutes passed.
Little by little…
the balance began to tilt.
Two centuries of experience were not something a small body could completely erase.
Lin Mu started retreating more.
His strikes were blocked.
His angles were closed.
Even his breathing… grew heavier.
As for Aris, he pressed harder, using all his experience, moving between different martial arts with the skill of a warrior who had lived among blood and ashes.
Boxing.
Taekwondo.
Kung Fu.
Karate.
Muay Thai.
And other martial arts that Aris had refined with his tears and sweat.
Then—
the air changed.
It was not a sound.
Nor a movement.
But a sensation… as if space itself had tightened its muscles.
Aris saw the first spark.
Faint.
Under Lin Mu's skin.
Then another.
Then—
the body ignited.
A hidden heat rose, and the air around the child trembled.
The system's voice echoed inside Aris's awareness:
[Alert.]
[The opponent is enhancing his body with spiritual energy.]
Only at that moment…
he understood.
Lin Mu had not been fighting with his full strength.
He had been suppressing himself to match him and test him.
The child vanished from in front of him.
No—
he moved with a speed that exceeded his expectations.
A strike came from an impossible angle. Aris blocked it… but the shock pierced his defense and his bones trembled.
He stepped back.
For the first time.
The second strike came.
Faster.
Heavier.
Lin Mu's reactions were no longer human… they were closer to flashes.
Aris tried to read the movement—
but reading requires time.
And time… no longer existed.
A kick hit his side.
The air choked in his chest.
A fist fell onto his shoulder, and he felt as if a rock had crashed down on him.
"So this… is real combat."
Enormous pressure surrounded him from all directions.
He stepped back once.
Then again.
Then—
his foot slipped half a centimeter.
Enough.
Lin Mu appeared before him, as if emerging from space itself.
A straight punch.
He could not fully avoid it.
His vision shook.
The ground rushed closer.
Then—
stillness.
He was lying on his back, staring at the distant ceiling that suddenly seemed… farther.
His breathing was heavy.
His body screamed.
But inside the dantian—
the vortex spun violently.
Slower… but he sat up.
And only then did he realize a cold truth that slipped deep into him:
He was not defeated because he had less experience…
but because he had not yet learned how to make energy… an extension of his instinct.
He lifted his eyes toward Lin Mu.
And for the first time since the duel began…
he smiled.
A small smile.
Dangerous.
As if the fall was not the end of something…
but the beginning of hunger.