The heavy alloy gauntlets felt less like weapons and more like natural extensions of Zeke's own bones. Every time he flexed his fingers, the interlocking scale-plates clicked together with a crisp, metallic snap that echoed through the quiet dojo.
Cyrus stood ten paces away, empty-handed now, his jian resting against the wall. He shifted his weight, dropping into a low, open-palm stance that radiated an invisible, suffocating gravity.
"A sword gives you distance," Cyrus called out, his slate-grey eyes locking onto Zeke's knuckles. "Gauntlets take away your safety net. To hit me, you have to step directly into my range—and stay there. Show me what your fists can do."
Zeke didn't hesitate. He inhaled sharply, dragging the bio-kinetic energy from his core straight down into his forearms, and exploded forward.
The floorboards groaned under his sudden burst of speed. Level 5 physical stats, combined with the new Brawler's Dominion passive, turned his dash into a low, grounded blur. He closed the ten-pace gap in a heartbeat, throwing a devastating, straight right cross aimed directly at Cyrus's chest.
THUD.
Cyrus didn't dodge. He simply raised his left forearm, catching Zeke's gauntlet cleanly.
A violent shockwave of compressed air rippled outward, blowing dust across the polished wood, yet Cyrus didn't even budge an inch. His feet remained planted like iron pillars driven into the earth.
"Too telegraphed!" Cyrus barked.
Before Zeke could retract his arm, Cyrus twisted his wrist, hooking Zeke's gauntlet, and drove a palm strike straight into Zeke's solar plexus.
CRACK.
The air exploded from Zeke's lungs. The sheer kinetic force launched him backward off his feet, sending him skidding across the wooden floor until his back slammed violently into the base of the far wall.
Zeke slumped forward, gasping raggedly for air as his vision swam. His HP bar flashed crimson in the corner of his eye.
<[WARNING: BLUNT FORCE TRAUMA DETECTED]>
<[HP: 4/10]>
"You're still holding back!" Cyrus shouted from the center of the mat, not giving Zeke a single second to recover. "You're treating that energy inside you like a bomb you're afraid to drop! Stop trying to keep the lid on! Let it out!"
Zeke gritted his teeth, forcing himself back onto his feet. His chest throbbed with a dull, agonizing ache, and his arms felt heavy. He looked down at the obsidian cores embedded in the palms of his gauntlets.
He thought about the firewall—that cold, unyielding barrier locked deep inside his soul, keeping his true demonic heritage sealed away from the world. Up until now, it had only broken open by accident, triggered by sheer panic or mortal danger. Every time it happened, it burned through him like a wild, uncontrollable wildfire.
Stop trying to keep the lid on.
Zeke closed his eyes. Instead of fighting the pressure building behind his ribs, he reached out with his consciousness and grabbed hold of the seal itself. He didn't try to shatter it completely—his Level 5 vessel would implode if he did—but he pulled hard, prying open a deliberate, controlled valve.
A sharp, resonant chime echoed directly inside his skull.
<[WARNING: USER IS MANUALLY BYPASSING FIREWALL PROTOCOL]>
<[VESSEL INTEGRITY CHECK: LEVEL 5 - MINIMUM THRESHOLD MET]>
<[ESTABLISHING CONTROLLED ENERGY CONDUIT...]>
<[SUCCESS.]>
<[NEW TRANSFORMATION UNLOCKED: AETHER STATE (STAGE 1)]>
<[NEW STAT UNLOCKED: AETHER (10/10)]>
<[NOTE: USER MAY NOW ACTIVATE AND SUSTAIN AETHER STATE AT WILL.]>
WHOOSH.
A sudden, violent eruption of roaring blue fire burst outward from the center of Zeke's chest, washing over his entire body without burning a single thread of his clothes.
In the dim light of the dojo, Zeke's pitch-black hair stood straight on end, its color bleeding into a brilliant, blinding neon blue as roaring tongues of blue flame ignited directly along the tips of his hair, flickering upward like a living crown of fire. His eyes snapped open, his pupils narrowing into razor-sharp, glowing cyan slits.
Down at his wrists, the obsidian cores in his gauntlets flared to life. Thick, roaring sheets of volatile blue Aetherflame engulfed both of his hands and forearms, crackling loudly as the intense, freezing heat warped the air around him.
For the first time, there was no blinding rage. No loss of control. His mind was razor-sharp, cold, and completely awake, watching the new AETHER gauge sit steadily at the edge of his vision.
Cyrus's eyebrows shot up, a wide, fierce grin breaking across his face as he felt the sudden, terrifying drop in the room's temperature and saw the blazing blue fire lighting up the wooden walls. "There it is! Now come!"
Zeke vanished.
He didn't just run—he launched himself across the mat with explosive, terrifying acceleration. The Aether State multiplied his baseline physical metrics, pushing his speed and power far beyond what a normal human—or even a standard C-Rank ability user—could comprehend.
He appeared right in front of Cyrus, throwing a blinding flurry of left and right hooks.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Each punch left a blazing ribbon of blue fire hanging in the air, sending violent shockwaves tearing across the dojo. Cyrus was forced to weave rapidly, his hands blurring as he deflected strike after strike. Blue embers and sparks showered the floor with every collision, scorching black marks onto the polished wood.
For three full seconds, Zeke actually pressed the master back, driving Cyrus two steps toward the edge of the mat. A final, devastating uppercut from Zeke grazed Cyrus's chin, the roaring blue fire singing a single stray lock of white hair clean off.
Then, Cyrus's eyes flashed with a sharp, slate-grey light.
"Good," Cyrus murmured. "Fast. Heavy. Now let me show you the difference between raw power and true mastery."
The air around Cyrus warped violently like a heat mirage. He didn't use raw strength—he localized his Time Manipulation directly around his own torso and arms, accelerating his personal speed to a level Zeke's eyes couldn't even track.
THWACK.
Zeke didn't even see the palm coming. A blindingly fast strike caught him square in the center of his chest, bypassing his guard entirely.
The kinetic impact shattered Zeke's momentum instantly. The blazing blue flames wreathing his gauntlets and hair sputtered out in a shower of dying sparks, his hair snapping back to its ordinary black as he flew backward, crashing heavily onto the wooden floor in a heap.
<[AETHER STATE DEACTIVATED]>
<[AETHER: 1/10]>
<[CURRENT STATUS: LEVEL 5 (ZERO)]>
<[HP: 1/10]>
Zeke lay flat on his back, staring up at the wooden ceiling rafters, his chest heaving as he dragged in massive gulps of air. Every muscle in his body felt completely drained, like wet lead. He had unlocked the Aether State—he could actually call upon his true fire freely now—and he still hadn't managed to land a single clean hit on Cyrus.
Heavy footsteps approached, stopping right beside his head. Cyrus looked down at him, breathing completely normally, not a single drop of sweat on his brow.
"Not bad, kid," Cyrus said, crossing his arms with a satisfied nod. "You actually made me use my trait. Most people in this city wouldn't survive three seconds against whatever the hell that fire is."
Zeke let out a weak, breathless laugh, raising a trembling, gauntlet-clad fist into the air before letting it drop back onto the mat.
"Yeah..." Zeke panted, a faint, determined grin spreading across his bruised face. "Still got a long way to go."