Chapter 5: The Gathering
The wind on Heart Island was strange tonight.
It wasn't cold, but it made Kevin shiver. It carried no threat, yet every step he took up the spiral staircase of glowing clouds felt like he was walking into judgment. Around him, the other trainees climbed as well... hundreds of them, silent, some awestruck, some murmuring. The stairs wound upward toward a massive floating structure: a lotus shaped amphitheater suspended in the sky, its petals wide open and glowing with pale blue fire.
Kevin looked up at it as he climbed, wincing. The pain from training earlier in the Chamber of Focus still pulsed beneath his ribs. His arms ached. His legs felt like rubber. But his mind... that was the real battlefield.
"What am I even doing here? "
He looked down over the island. Below, the clouds coiled gently over forest canopies and shining domes of marble. From above, the world shimmered like someone had dipped Earth into a dream. He could almost pretend it was a twisted version of the old world... the one he lost.
A breeze brushed past his ear, carrying laughter. For a moment, he heard Lamar's voice, rough and joyful. Then it was gone.
He reached the top.
...
The Heart of the Island
The amphitheater pulsed with divine light. Ribbons of soft energy flowed above the heads of the gathered Tenshi trainees, flickering like living constellations. The air thrummed with something Kevin couldn't describe... like fate itself was holding its breath.
He stood awkwardly near the back, folding his arms. He didn't like crowds. Too many eyes. And now, it felt like every one of them was on him.
He noticed how they looked at him: some with awe, others with guarded suspicion. Even now, the story had spread... the Earth-born boy who lived, pulled from death's door, granted passage to Tenshi Denshi without trial. No one said it aloud, but Kevin could hear it in their stares:
"He's not one of us."
" I heard he can't even do the basics of the 1st heavenly form technique. "
Across the glowing platform, Tariel met his eyes. She wore her full regalia now... white and gold robes of her order, trimmed with threads of violet energy. She gave him a nod. Half-smile. A kind of "Don't lose your mind" expression.
Kevin exhaled. The silence deepened.
Then...
A pillar of gold descended.
The Heralds of Change
It wasn't loud or dramatic. It was calm, warm, and absolute. The light hit the center of the amphitheater like a declaration. And from it stepped Raphiel... his long hair tied back, his usual playful demeanor replaced with grave formality. His robes tonight were ink-black, etched with silver patterns that Kevin couldn't read... sigils of the Third Sphere.
He was not alone.
Beside him stood Mikaeru.
Kevin felt his jaw tense. He hadn't seen him like thisy before... not in shadows, not mocking or cryptic. Mikaeru wore a fitted black and silver tunic, arms crossed behind his back, wings folded and calm. He looked... majestic. Like a celestial general. No longer the barefoot weirdo from the forest.
Kevin's breath caught.
"He looks like a damn king."
"Its cause in our eyes he is one and forever will be." Said khaela in the corners eating oranges
The crowd instinctively bowed. Kevin didn't. He just watched.
Raphiel raised his voice, resonant and sure:
"Tenshi Denshi... our era is shifting."
"The divine layers above us stir. The Tenkai has spoken again. And not with peace. The harmony that binds the 16 Realms begins to crack. Shadows from long ago awaken. The old balances tremble."
The crowd murmured. Fear. Excitement.
"And so just as it was in the days of legend... I declared the return of the Ascension Trials."
Gasps filled the air. Even Kevin's eyes widened.
"What are the Ascension Trials?" he whispered.
Khaela ignored him and carried on ate his orange.
Kevin looked at him with disgust after he was ignored.
"They hadn't been held in over 300 years. "Khaela said while eating his orange,
" Trainees who passed ascended to the next Form. Those who failed… often didn't come back again."
Raphiel's voice continued like thunder wrapped in silk:
"All trainees... no matter your sphere... will be tested. The Trials begin in three days."
"Only four will be chosen. The four who succeed will receive direct combat tutelage from Mikaeru, the former Guardian of the Tenkai."
More gasps. This time louder. But Kevin felt his knees weaken from disgust.
Mikaeru tilted his head slightly, scowling. He leaned toward Raphiel, clearly annoyed.
"Using me as bait for teenagers again?" he muttered.
Tariel chuckled behind him.
"Oh relax. Think of it as community service. For all your past deeds"
"I'll have you know I was not consulted..."
"Well," she smiled sweetly, "we're consulting you now."
Mikaeru muttered, "I'm getting you all for this," under his breath.
But Kevin wasn't laughing. He could barely breathe. Not from the atmosphere. But from disbelief that Mikaeru is really a somebody here.
Yet the announcement lingered in his mind on the fact that he might be in the worst predicament ever. Thinking maybe just maybe he would be exempted since he couldn't master the basic and it would be suicide for him to join.
And then...
Raphiel turned and looked directly at him.
"Kevin. You are not exempt. Tengoku has chosen to observe you."
Everything stopped.
His mind froze and his heart pumped 4 times fast than before.
And a expression of you really had to include me.
...
The gathering ended in chaos. Everyone talking. Some whispering his name. Some avoiding him like a curse. Others nodding in grim respect. Kevin didn't speak to anyone. He drifted. Until he found himself beneath a glowing crystal tree, watching the lights swirl across the horizon.
He thought of Earth.
The cold nights. The cracked pavement outside the orphanage. The time he and Lamar shared a single blanket in winter. And how it still felt warmer than this place.
He thought of his mother. Of her laugh. Of the way her hands never stopped shaking.
He was so far from all of it.
"Why me?" he whispered to the stars.
A breeze replied.
And then... a figure sat beside him.
Mikaeru.
He didn't speak at first. Just sat there, fingers loosely folded.
Finally, he broke the silence:
"You hate me, don't you?"
Kevin didn't look at him.
"I don't know what I feel. I just know... you confuse the hell out of me."
Mikaeru gave a tired smirk.
"Good. If I didn't, I wouldn't be doing my job." An smiles and looked at the sky.
Kevin turned toward him, finally speaking:
"Why didn't you help me in the Chamber? I thought... after everything... you'd at least step in when I was about to lose it."
Mikaeru didn't answer right away.
He looked up at the center of bright lights in the heart island.
"Because you're not a child anymore. And I can't carry your on your path. Not where you're going."
" Plus control isn't something I can give you. It's something you earn.
By breaking. Again. And again."
He stood, the starlight casting silver over his shoulders.
Kevin rose slowly.
" Okay then seems like , im going to die... will I survive the Trials?"
Mikaeru didn't look back.
"Ohhh That depends."
"Are you still afraid of your power… or just afraid of what you might become?"
A beat of silence.
"But that thing you did earlier…" he added over his shoulder. "That spark. That intention. That was real. Don't lose that."
"Do that in the Trials... and maybe I'll consider teaching you, brat."
Tariel's voice rang distantly from above.
"You know they can hear you, right?"
"Let them." Mikaeru vanished into starlight.
Kevin looked down at his palm.
A flicker of Reikiatsu danced softly in it.
This time... he didn't crush it.
He let it breathe.
...