[Opening Spread]
Underground chamber.
Not the Ashen Crown.
Lower.
Dirtier.
A Válkrith syndicate hall carved into subway ruins.
Dozens gathered.
Screens flicker.
On them—
Grainy footage of alley carnage.
Bodies shredded.
Blood moving sideways unnaturally.
A voice echoes through the chamber:
"The one they call the Still Storm…"
"…now carries a price."
[Close Panel]
A sigil appears on screen.
Not Ryuto's.
A bounty mark.
Essence reward offered:
High-tier extraction rights.
Whoever brings proof of death—
Ascends rank.
The room erupts in low murmurs.
Some nervous.
Some hungry.
One mutters:
"He doesn't feed."
Another replies:
"All storms break."
[Narration Box]
When fear becomes profitable—
Morality evaporates.
[Street Level — Night]
Ryuto walking again.
He pauses mid-step.
The air changes.
Not turbulence.
Intent.
Multiple pressure disturbances.
Moving toward him.
Fast.
He closes his eyes.
Counts heartbeats.
Five.
No—
Six signatures.
Surrounding pattern.
They've studied him.
Spaced out to avoid pressure overlap.
Smarter than the rogue.
[Mechanic Explanation — Tactical Awareness]
Ryuto's detection isn't mystical.
He senses fluctuations in atmospheric density.
Moving bodies displace air.
Válkrith displace more.
Because their metabolic heat alters microcurrents.
He reads turbulence like sonar.
They think they're quiet.
They're not.
[Ambush — Page Turn]
Explosive entry.
One crashes from rooftop.
Two from behind.
One underground burst.
Concrete erupts.
Ryuto doesn't jump back.
He slightly increases air density around his own body.
This is defensive application.
Higher surrounding density = reduced impact penetration.
First attacker's claw strike lands—
But slows at contact.
Friction spikes.
Skin tears shallow instead of deep.
He counters instantly.
Compresses air in a spherical burst at chest level.
Release.
Attacker's ribs cave inward violently.
Bone shards puncture lungs.
Blood erupts from mouth and nose.
But Ryuto doesn't look at him.
Already turning.
Second attacker uses distance.
Throws hardened bone spikes.
Ryuto shifts pressure gradient mid-air.
Air becomes uneven.
Spikes curve off trajectory.
Because projectiles require stable flow.
He destabilizes flow.
They veer.
Third attacker lunges low.
Smart.
Close proximity reduces blade-plane effectiveness.
Ryuto adapts.
Instead of slicing—
He increases localized pressure inside the attacker's ear canals.
Sudden imbalance.
Inner ear rupture.
Attacker collapses screaming.
Blood leaking from ears.
He finishes with downward compression.
Skull fractures.
Now four left.
They hesitate.
That hesitation matters.
Because Ryuto feeds off silence.
The quieter they become—
The more stable his pressure fields grow.
His control improves when the environment stills.
He didn't know that before.
Now he does.
[Escalation]
One high-tier among them steps forward.
Scarred face.
Calm.
"I'll take the bounty."
He releases his Doll—
A massive iron-chain construct that anchors into buildings.
He locks down the environment.
Anchoring pressure points.
Brilliant move.
By stabilizing surrounding structures—
He reduces free-flow turbulence.
Limiting Ryuto's manipulation range.
Ryuto feels it instantly.
His control radius shrinks.
From 1.5 meters—
To 1 meter.
He's being restricted.
[Mechanic Shift]
Fine.
If range shrinks—
Density increases.
He stops spreading pressure wide.
Instead—
He concentrates it tightly.
Condenses air at microscopic scale.
The high-tier charges.
Ryuto doesn't move.
He compresses a hyper-thin vertical plane directly in front of him.
Waits.
The attacker crosses into that plane—
Release.
The air shears through torso completely.
Not wide.
Not dramatic.
A single clean vertical split.
The body separates silently.
Blood doesn't spray.
It falls in two halves.
The remaining attackers freeze.
Wind coils slowly around Ryuto's feet.
He whispers:
"…Too many."
And increases overall atmospheric pressure in a three-meter radius.
Not slicing.
Crushing.
The remaining Válkrith drop to knees.
Capillaries bursting in eyes.
Bones creaking.
Lungs collapsing inward.
He holds it.
Five seconds.
Then releases.
They slump.
Alive.
Barely.
He walks past them.
Leaving survivors intentionally.
Fear spreads faster than corpses.
[Cut — Underground Syndicate]
A wounded survivor stumbles in.
Body shaking.
"…He doesn't fight like us."
"He fights the world."
Silence spreads.
Someone whispers:
"…Still Storm…"
The bounty doubles.
[Final Panel — Rooftop]
Ryuto stands alone.
Blood drying on coat.
He flexes his hand.
Notices something new.
When he concentrated pressure inward—
The sigil brightened slightly more than before.
Adaptation accelerating.
He murmurs:
"…They're forcing me to evolve."
Behind him—
Storm-serpent silhouette coils tighter than ever.
Watching.
Black page.
AERION
End Chapter 4.