[The Training Grounds - Tree of Life]
The holographic call flickered out. Yoru sighed, closing her status window. "Forget Nefa. She's not coming to help us, Techyon. We're on our own. Neweland and I are going to have to push you through this training ourselves."
[Three Hours Later]
The training field was a mess of scorched earth and cratered soil. Techyon was drenched in sweat, his lungs burning. He swung a desperate, heavy hook at Yoru's jaw, but his fist passed through empty air as she vanished in a blur of gold.
"This is cheating!" Techyon roared, spinning around only to find her standing ten feet behind him, completely untouched. "You're just teleporting every time I get close!"
"Gudmaro can also teleport," Yoru replied, her voice cold and instructional. "He stole Lapis's space-warping. If you can't catch me, you'll never even see him coming. You have to predict the exit point, not the starting point."
Techyon wiped blood from his lip. "Be honest... who is faster? You or him?"
Yoru's expression darkened. "In terms of travel, we are both Instantaneous because of teleportation. But in terms of RAW combat speed? He is faster. When he cut Lapis's hand, I couldn't see him moving. He has surpassed the limits of MFTL+ perception."
Techyon growled and lunged again, but Yoru flickered out of existence before the strike even landed.
"Stand still!" Techyon screamed at the empty air. "Just let me hit you once!"
"Techyon, don't get angry," Alya called out from the sidelines, her voice full of worry. "Anger makes your movements heavy!"
Neweland watched Techyon's stiff, aggressive posture. He remembered something his own master had told him centuries ago. "Techyon," Neweland said, stepping into the ring. "Stop trying to break her. You have to become water."
Techyon stopped, his chest heaving. "Become water? What do you mean? I'm a fighter, not a liquid!"
Neweland picked up a training cup. "If you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. If you put it into a bottle, it becomes the bottle. Water can flow... or it can crash. Be formless, Techyon. Your Auto-Counter is failing because you are trying to 'force' it. A counter isn't a strike; it's a reaction to the shape of the enemy."
[The Training Grounds]
Neweland watched Techyon's ragged breathing. "I mean be calm like water, Techyon. Don't let your mind distract you. Your thoughts are like stones thrown into a pond—they create ripples that Gudmaro can read. You must fight with your heart, where the intent is pure and silent."
Techyon closed his eyes, trying to find that inner stillness. He slowed his pulse, imagining his mana flowing like a river. But every time he moved, the image shattered. He lunged at Yoru, but his movements were still jerky, still filled with the "noise" of his frustration.
SHINK.
The cold edge of Splitting Blade touched the side of Techyon's neck. Yoru stood there, her eyes like amber glass. "You're overthinking the 'water' part. Lunch break. You can't reach Level 2 on an empty stomach."
"I have made lunch!" Alya called out, waving them over to a small spread of food she had prepared under the shade of the Tree of Life.
Techyon slumped onto a log and took a sandwich. He stared at it without eating. "It's impossible," he muttered. "The logic doesn't add up. If Yoru loses—and she's the fastest person I know—I won't even be able to touch his shadow. 'Becoming water' won't stop him from erasing me."
Alya sat beside him, placing a gentle hand on his arm. "Don't give up, Techyon. One day, you will be the one they look up to. You'll reach that peak."
Techyon looked at her and managed a small, tired smile. "Thanks for the support, Alya. Really." He looked back down at the grass. "But 'one day' will never come if I can't beat him now. The universe doesn't have another day if we fail on that mountain."
Yoru sat across from them, her blade resting against her shoulder. She wasn't eating; she was watching the way the mana shimmered around the leaves.
"Neweland is right about the philosophy," Yoru said seriously. "But I think doing more muscle training is useless now. We've hit our physical ceiling. If we get exhausted, Gudmaro wins by default. From this moment on, we should focus our training entirely on our Mana Levels and Output Density. We need to learn how to keep our reserves full even while he's trying to vacuum them out of our souls."
[The Northern Mountain Stadium]
The air atop the meteor-carved arena was thin and freezing, but Gudmaro stood unbothered, his violet wings folded like a dark God's mantle. Suddenly, he tilted his head back, his "Perfect" eyes narrowing as they pierced through the clouds and the atmosphere itself.
"Hmm?" Gudmaro's voice was a low hum. "And who is that...?"
A streak of blinding, incandescent orange tore through the sky. It wasn't a ship or a missile. It was a Phoenix made of pure, concentrated solar flame, trailing a wake of fire that turned the night sky into noon. The bird of prey roared—a sound that vibrated the very tectonic plates of the Earth—before it vanished into the black vacuum of space.
[Deep Space - Stellar Sector 7]
The scene shifts. The "Phoenix" was no mythical beast. It was Cynthia, her body encased in a shroud of flame so hot it was turning white. She wasn't just flying; she was hunting.
Ahead of her sat a Neutron Star—a collapsed celestial corpse only 20 kilometers wide, yet spinning hundreds of times per second and packing the mass of a dozen suns. Its gravity was screaming, trying to tear her molecules apart.
Cynthia didn't slow down. She gritted her teeth, her eyes glowing with a feral, golden light. She didn't just want power; she wanted Density. To bypass Gudmaro's drain, she needed a flame so heavy, so compact, that his "vacuum" wouldn't be strong enough to pull it out of her soul.
[The Northern Mountain]
Back on the stadium, Gudmaro closed his eyes, feeling the ripples in the cosmic mana. A small, arrogant smirk played on his lips. He realized exactly what she was attempting.
"Absorbing the heart of a dead star... clever, Goddess," Gudmaro whispered to the wind. "Go ahead. Become as dense as you like. Forge your flames in the hottest furnace the universe has to offer."
He opened his eyes, the violet glow intensifying. "Do anything you want. In three days, I will simply drain it all out of you and make that star-power my own."