The mountain air had never felt so light.
We left behind the stifling darkness of the forge, descending the rocky stone path as the first rays of Lavinsk's twin suns began to peek over the horizon, painting the clouds in a pale, silent gold.
Silver walked beside me in his absolute, unshakable silence, his hands buried deep in his pockets.
I, however, could barely contain the energy thrumming in my chest.
For the first time, my right hand rested near the black scabbard fastened at my waist.
The weight of the Kazekiba felt reassuring.
It was my blood, my pain, and my will, forged and cooled into steel.
The confidence radiating from that blade swept away any lingering trace of hesitation in my mind.
I felt whole.
Ready for whatever the universe chose to throw at me.
When the mansion gates loomed through the morning mist, the place's serenity felt almost excessive, fragile.
The exact kind of calm that usually precedes the unraveling of a world.
Lavinsk was about to be left behind.
We crossed the lawn and stepped onto the estate's training grounds.
"You don't seem nervous," Arthur's deep voice sounded from behind me.
I turned around.
The gray giant was striding across the grass alongside Laura.
"I'm saving my nerves for when we set foot there," I replied, offering a short smile.
Silver walked to the center of the yard.
He stopped, slid his hands back into his pockets, and regarded us with that familiar, cynical green gaze.
"Tsukumo, the Son of the God of Strength, is the one who sets the rules in that lifeless patch of rock," Silver began, his polished voice cutting through the morning breeze. "He is no fool. This entire planet is his eyes and ears. Once you arrive, you will not be guests. You will be the prey."
At that moment, Kânia descended the marble steps of the veranda and walked toward us. Noticing our attention had drifted, Silver cleared his throat, breaking the moment.
But doubt still hammered at my mind.
"Master," I called out, glancing around the empty grassy yard. "You said Ruitan is our destination now, but how exactly are we supposed to get there?"
Silver crossed his arms and let out a long, rough sigh—one heavy with rare irritation, as if my question had brought up something he deeply despised.
He turned his gaze toward the vast blue expanse above, his jaw tightening slightly.
"Dimensional portals leave massive trails. Tsukumo would sense the distortion in space-time before you even caught the scent of his soil," Silver explained, his voice cold and sharp. "And transport crystals are pathetic tools. I will not have you relying on such things."
He closed his eyes for a brief moment, his expression hardening into genuine disgust.
"I have always hated the idea of allowing this. Flight separates warriors from the raw friction of battle, disconnects the mind from the true gravity of the world, and only feeds arrogance," the master murmured, looking back at us with an intensity that made the grass beneath his boots wither. "But the window of opportunity we have is incredibly narrow, and the void between worlds leaves no tracks to be followed. It is an unavoidable necessity."
The platinum god uncrossed his arms and took a step forward.
The heavy, oppressive pressure that had anchored us to the ground since the first day of training suddenly evaporated, as if a thick iron chain bound to our very bones had been shattered.
"The restriction is lifted," Silver declared, his voice echoing absolute and irrevocable across the yard. "The rule forbidding flight ends here. You will cross open space using only your own bodies."
Laura's red eyes widened.
Then a wide grin, brimming with pure predatory excitement, split the girl's face.
For her, the ban on flight had been nothing more than a chain around her neck.
SNIKT.
Silver claws slid from between Laura's knuckles, vibrating with a metallic hum.
"Finally, old man! It's about time I got to use my true speed without having to stay grounded."
Kânia smiled at the girl's enthusiasm and raised her hand, tracing lines of golden light in the air that formed a holographic star map.
"The solar system of Lavinsk functions differently from the mortal universe," the goddess explained, pointing toward two glowing spheres orbiting dangerously close to one another. "Ruitan is practically our neighbor. Our orbits intersect, sharing the same central gravitational pull. You will not need to cross entire galaxies."
My blood ran cold.
My throat went dry as I swallowed hard.
Travel through space?! I thought.
"Master…", I called, my voice wavering slightly as panic began to pound at the edges of my mind. "When we traveled to that training planet years ago, you wrapped me in a dense bubble of oxygen so I wouldn't die. If I jump into the vacuum of space now… won't I be crushed by the pressure? How will I even breathe?"
He uncrossed his arms and met my gaze with unyielding gravity.
"Back then, you were merely a human cub, Suki. If I had not created that atmosphere around you, the vacuum would have boiled your blood and collapsed your lungs within seconds."
The god stepped closer, pointing directly at my chest.
"But your body is no longer the same. The awakening of your divinity and the forced adaptation your lineage has undergone have altered the density of your flesh."
"Today, your lungs naturally withstand the emptiness of space. Your bones are forged to endure the impact of gods. You no longer need a bubble, Suki. Your own body is your armor against the void."
I looked down at my hands.
His words made sense in theory, but the primitive human instinct for self-preservation was still screaming.
Surviving in outer space with nothing but my own body?
It still sounded like madness to me.
I clenched my fingers into a tight fist and stepped forward, adjusting the tattered fabric of the old tunic I had worn since leaving the forge.
"Very well," I stated, straightening the scabbard of my sword. "I am ready."
"No, you are not."
Kânia's soft yet unyielding voice cut across the yard.
She looked me up and down, a faint, almost maternal smile of disapproval tugging at the goddess's perfect lips.
"You are not going to invade a hostile planet and face the court of a tyrant wearing the rags of forge training, Suki," she chided gently.
"You have grown noticeably stronger. You need something worthy of the person you are becoming."
She pointed a slender, delicate finger toward the mansion's large crystal windows.
"Go to your room. There is something waiting for you on the bed."
I frowned, surprised, but wasted no time.
I hurried across the yard and ran up the marble stairs, throwing open the door to my room.
The golden light of dawn fell directly across the mattress, illuminating Kânia's gift.
My breath nearly caught in my throat.
The suit lay there, folded with surgical precision, exuding an aura of pure lethality and elegance.
It was clothing meticulously designed to match my exact anatomy and fighting style.
I stripped off my dirty clothes and began to dress.
The base layer was a short-sleeved compression shirt, made from an incredibly light, silky black material that, upon touch, possessed the ballistic density of flexible steel.
Over it, I put on a tactical combat coat, also dark as matte obsidian.
It was sleeveless, leaving my shoulders and arms completely free to expand my muscles and display the glowing marks of Transformation. It had an asymmetrical cut and a tall, sharp collar that protected the nape of my neck and lower jaw from biting winds and shrapnel.
I adjusted the black tactical trousers—loose enough around the thighs to not restrict my supersonic spins, yet fitted perfectly into high leather boots.
The soles and toes of the boots were forged from Lavinsk steel, heavy enough to anchor the crushing weight of Earth Transformation, yet streamlined so they would not hinder flight.
On my forearms, I strapped matte metal guards wrapped in dark bindings, which protected the bones from hard blocks while leaving my fingers completely bare and sensitive for wielding my weapon.
And finally, the detail that brought everything together.
A wide, rugged sash of deep, vivid crimson. My eyes widened.
This sash… it is the same one I wore during the tournament.
It was slightly frayed and clearly mended in places, yet its bold red hue remained as striking as ever.
I wrapped the blood-red sash firmly around my waist, tied it securely, and slid the Kazekiba's scabbard into the folds of the fabric.
I walked over to the large mirror leaning against the wall.
The warrior staring back at me looked sharp, shadowed, agile, and exuded the essence of a lethal ronin forged by gods.
The contrast between the black clothing, the vibrant red sash, and the hilt of my new sword created an iconic, unforgettable image.
This… is perfect, I thought, clenching my fists and feeling the suit's unrestricted mobility.
I descended the stairs in the blink of an eye and walked back toward the damp grass of the training grounds.
As I approached, Laura let out a low, drawn-out whistle.
Her predatory grin widened.
"Look at you," she teased, though the glint of approval in her red eyes was undeniable. "Reminds me of the outfit you wore during the tournament."
Arthur swept his gaze over my new attire.
Kânia smiled warmly.
"The fabric is woven with elven silk threads and Lavinsk thermal-dissipating fibers. It will not melt or tear easily."
"You look quite handsome."
Suki's face flushed instantly—he had always been terrible with compliments.
Silver, however, wasted no time admiring the craftsmanship.
"The Queen entrusted this mission to you for a reason," Silver announced, raising his voice so the wind would carry it. "Once you set foot there, you will be the only forces capable of making a difference. Show her… and show yourselves… what you are truly capable of!"
"Go, and come back in one piece."
Laura did not wait.
She unleashed her crimson aura and shot upward like a bullet, tearing through the clouds in a streak of red.
Arthur bent his knees and followed, silent and deadly.
I closed my eyes.
I drew the air of Lavinsk deep into my lungs until my chest ached.
I activated Wind Transformation; glowing white marks tore across my skin and the dark fabric of my new suit, radiating a blinding brilliance.
I bent my knees and launched myself from the ground like a rocket of pure light, leaving the sonic boom far behind.
Within seconds, we broke through the first layer of clouds, soaring past the floating pillars and platforms of Silver's aerial arena—golden marble stones and stardust drifting slowly as we climbed even faster.
The crystal blue sky of Lavinsk began to darken, cooling until the golden glow vanished completely, giving way to the absolute void, dotted with billions of stars.
Cosmic emptiness embraced me, and the cold was overwhelming—a thick, pervasive darkness—but the terror my human instincts had expected to feel simply never came.
I waited for crushing pain, for my veins to bulge from decompression, and for my lungs to beg for air, yet my body merely… accepted it.
The lack of oxygen was not agony; my body adapted instantly.
It felt so absurdly natural to my new divine anatomy that my human mind found the situation surreal.
He was right…, I realized, relaxing my shoulders in the open space.
I am not going to explode. I really can withstand this naturally.
I glanced to my side.
Laura was a scarlet meteor, cutting through the darkness at an absurd speed, her claws extended and her red eyes shining with pure predatory joy.
Right beside her, Arthur moved like a missile—steady and fast, yet his eyes burned with focused, deadly intensity.
Once we had stabilized beyond the planet's atmosphere, I closed my eyes for a fraction of a second, feeling the void around me.
When I opened them, I glanced back over my shoulder.
Lavinsk loomed as a colossal, majestic sphere, covered in vast oceans and shimmering with a glowing aura.
The divine realm's enormous moons orbited the vast expanse right before my eyes, while dozens of other colorful planets dotted the endless black tapestry of the universe.
A loud, euphoric laugh echoed in my mind, and adrenaline surged through my chest.
"This is incredible!" I shouted, spreading my arms wide into the emptiness.
I blinked, utterly astonished.
The sound of my own voice had just resonated clearly in my ears.
"I… I can speak?!" I murmured, testing my vocal cords and realizing our auras acted as a medium to carry sound.
I spoke a few random words, then let out another laugh.
"This is amazing!"
I turned my gaze forward and scanned the starry darkness.
There, appearing surprisingly close given the scale of space Kânia had described, hung a sickly grayish-purple sphere, pockmarked with scars of cooled magma.
I pointed immediately.
"That's it! The neighbor Kânia mentioned!"
"Suki!" Laura's voice rang through the void, sharp with irritation yet laced with amusement.
"Can you stop marveling at space like a child and focus?! Speed up already!"
The girl laughed genuinely at my childish reaction, twisted her body in the emptiness, and pushed her crimson aura to its limit, shooting like a comet toward Ruitan.
Arthur followed without hesitation, picking up speed.
I flashed a sharp grin, adjusted the Kazekiba's scabbard at my waist, and unleashed my white aura, diving into the darkness behind them with everything I had.
Far below, on the surface of Lavinsk, the morning breeze stirred gently through the grass of the training grounds.
Silver and Kânia stood side by side, their faces turned toward the endless sky.
Three trails of light—one red, one green, and one white—were still visible to the naked eye, cutting through the blue until they vanished completely into the darkness of outer space.
The goddess sighed, her brown eyes heavy with quiet concern.
"Do you think everything will go well, Silver?" Kânia asked, crossing her arms and gripping her own elbow gently.
"Tsukumo is no ordinary being. He is the fourth son of Vangor. The raw power and brutality of that lineage do not forgive mistakes."
Silver slid his hands into his trouser pockets.
The platinum god continued to stare at the stars, though a wide, cynical, and terrifyingly proud smile spread across his face.
"It will be quite the challenge for the three of them," he replied, his voice carrying deadly, serene confidence.
He lowered his head and let out a low, rough chuckle.
"I just hope Vangor doesn't get too angry with me when my brats knock the teeth out of his precious cub."
We drifted through the darkness for only a few minutes of maximum acceleration before the massive, diseased sphere of Ruitan filled our entire field of vision.
We were pulled in by its gravitational pull.
We entered Ruitan's atmosphere, tearing through the sky like three falling balls of fire.
Atmospheric friction superheated our auras.
Impact was inevitable.
KRAKOOOM!
We crashed into the barren ground, sending massive columns of dust and black stone soaring into the air.
The deafening roar ripped through the atmosphere—a high-pitched hum identical to the sound that had haunted my childhood—assaulting my eardrums.
A violent, traumatic chill froze my spine instantly.
I fell to my knees at the bottom of my own crater, coughing, but my body reacted on its own.
I snapped my head upward, eyes wide, desperately expecting to see scarlet wings and a maw of fire blocking out the sun.
The dragon.
The image of the monster that had destroyed the Safe Haven exploded in my mind.
But the sky was empty.
There is no dragon here, I repeated to myself, forcing my mind to accept Ruitan's harsh reality.
I squeezed my eyes shut, took a deep breath, and pushed the panic back into the depths of my subconscious until the trembling in my hands subsided.
The stench of sulfur and burnt metal was overwhelming. When the dust finally settled, we stared at our new hell.
The sky above was a suffocating vault of purple clouds and roiling smoke.
The earth beneath our boots was truly dead—vast plains of shattered rock, crisscrossed by glowing fissures where the planet's energy oozed like blood.
And on the horizon, tearing through the polluted skyline, rose a monstrous architectural structure.
Gigantic forges, towers of raw iron, and titanic gears that seemed to swallow the very heavens.
What the hell is this? I thought.
Laura opened a small leather pouch fastened to her belt. With a clear spatial distortion trick Silver must have taught her, she reached her arm all the way to the elbow and pulled out three long cloaks, faded and frayed at the edges.
As she unfolded the heavy fabric, the planet's reddish light fell upon her, and I finally took a moment to truly notice the gear Kânia had prepared for both of them.
Laura had abandoned generic dark tones.
She wore a short, extremely fitted leather jacket in a deep wine color, almost scarlet. It featured asymmetrical pauldrons forged from matte bronze, giving her an even more aggressive silhouette.
Beneath it, she wore flexible graphite mesh, paired with dark moss-green tactical trousers lined with leather straps along the thighs and empty holsters, finishing with hunting boots reinforced with metal toes. It was the look of a true urban predator, tailored perfectly for the lethal agility of her claws.
Arthur, on the other hand, looked like a rooted war tank.
The giant wore a heavy, sleeveless vest crafted from earthy brown leather, reinforced with thick, rusted steel plates covering his chest and ribs.
Thick bracers of raw leather wrapped around his granite forearms, and his slate-gray cargo trousers disappeared into combat boots with soles thick enough to crush boulders. The clothing clung to his skin tone, turning him into a veritable force of nature.
"Put these on," Laura ordered, tossing the bundles of fabric toward us. "We need to blend into the filth of this place."
I caught the tattered cloak.
We threw the heavy fabric over our shoulders, covering our armor. I carefully concealed the hilt of the Kazekiba and my crimson sash beneath the folds of the old cloth.
With our hoods pulled low, we looked like nothing more than three mercenaries or refugees wandering through the end of the world.