The aftermath settled slowly.
Not silence.
Recovery.
The plaza had returned to motion. Vendors shouted again. Footsteps echoed. Children ran without knowing how close everything had come to stopping forever. Biru's shadow was gone, pulled back into whatever layer of reality he preferred to wait in.
Gilmuar sat on a broken section of stone near the edge of the square, axe resting against his shoulder. Leona stood close, arms crossed, watching him carefully. Tier had already rebuilt half his tablet from spare components. Cron leaned against a pillar, eyes half closed, pretending to relax.
Dantero stretched.
Dantero: So. Nobody died. City still standing. I call that a win.
Cron exhaled through his nose.
Cron: Barely.
Gilmuar rolled his neck once.
Gilmuar: He was tougher than I thought.
Leona shot him a look.
Leona: That is not what you should be taking away from this.
Gilmuar smirked faintly.
Gilmuar: Relax. I stopped.
Cron looked at him.
Cron: You almost didn't.
The air shifted.
Not violently.
Not suddenly.
Just enough that the sound of the plaza thinned for half a second, like the world blinked.
Tier froze.
Tier: ...Hold on.
Everyone felt it then.
Not pressure like Lybel.
Not authority like Enra.
This was different.
Crude.
Heavy.
Hungry.
Far beyond the outer edge of the Dark Empire, space distorted.
A man appeared.
No portal.
No tear.
He was simply there, levitating a few feet above the ground, arms loose at his sides, body relaxed like he had all the time in the world. Long dark hair hung behind him, tied back loosely. His clothing was worn and layered, armor scarred and cracked in places that had never been repaired.
He looked amused.
One foot lowered.
It touched the ground.
And the ground ceased to exist.
Not shattered.
Not blown apart.
Erased.
A massive circular section of land vanished instantly, as if reality itself had been scooped out. Stone, soil, air, everything inside the radius collapsed into nothing, leaving a perfectly clean hollow that stretched deep into the earth. The edges did not crumble. They were smooth. Cut by force too absolute to argue with.
The empire felt it.
Every barrier flared.
Every defense screamed.
Leona's eyes widened.
Leona: ...No way.
Cron straightened fully.
Cron: That weight.
Dantero stopped smiling.
Tier whispered.
Tier: That is not controlled output.
Gilmuar was already standing.
His grin was wide.
Sharp.
Alive.
Gilmuar: ...You felt it too.
He vanished.
Not by gravity.
By instinct.
The air cracked as Gilmuar launched himself across the empire, speed folding distance into nothing as he appeared at the edge of the massive hollow. Dust and pressure spiraled outward as he landed hard, boots skidding along the ruined edge.
The man looked at him.
Slowly.
His eyes lit up.
Kenzo: Oh.
Kenzo tilted his head slightly, grin spreading across his face.
Kenzo: So it was you.
Gilmuar laughed.
Loud.
Excited.
Gilmuar: You felt it, didn't you.
Kenzo dropped the rest of the distance, landing inside the hollow. The ground beneath his feet did not break further. It simply refused to return.
Kenzo rolled his shoulders.
Kenzo: Yeah.
Kenzo: Felt something ugly start to wake up.
Kenzo looked Gilmuar up and down.
Kenzo: Was hoping it wasn't you.
Gilmuar planted his axe against the ground, leaning forward slightly.
Gilmuar: Miss me that much.
Kenzo laughed.
A real laugh.
Kenzo: I miss good fights.
Kenzo's gaze sharpened.
Kenzo: And you were about to become one.
The air between them tightened.
Not collapsing.
Testing.
Gilmuar's grin widened even more.
Gilmuar: Then why didn't you wait.
Kenzo stepped forward.
The hollow expanded another few meters without sound.
Kenzo: Because if you finished what you started.
Kenzo looked past Gilmuar, toward the empire.
Kenzo: There wouldn't be anything left for me to fight later.
Silence stretched.
Gilmuar's smile faltered.
Just a little.
Kenzo cracked his neck.
Kenzo: You always did rush things.
Kenzo's eyes burned with anticipation.
Kenzo: So.
Kenzo: You wanna show me how heavy you've gotten.
Or should I remind you.
The ground trembled.
And somewhere deep inside Gilmuar, something answered.
This time, it did not hesitate.
The air between the brothers collapsed.
Kenzo moved first.
No warning. No windup.
He crossed the hollow in a single step, the erased ground screaming as reality tried and failed to rebuild beneath him. His fist came in low, brutal, carrying raw destructive intent rather than technique.
Gilmuar met it head on.
He didn't dodge.
He didn't block.
He swung.
Axe and fist collided.
The impact did not explode.
It caved.
Space folded inward around the collision point, compressing violently before rebounding in a shockwave that tore outward across the hollow. The smooth edges of erased land shattered further as gravity and destruction fought for dominance.
Gilmuar skidded back, boots digging trenches into nothing.
Kenzo laughed mid motion.
Kenzo: YES.
He lunged again, knee driving upward. Gilmuar barely twisted aside, the knee passing close enough that the gravity field around it warped his ribs inward painfully.
Gilmuar grunted.
Gilmuar: You're heavier too.
Kenzo slammed his foot down.
The hollow deepened.
Not cracked.
Punched.
A new layer of reality vanished beneath his heel, the erased space expanding downward as if the world itself was being excavated by force alone.
Kenzo: I stopped pretending to hold back.
Gilmuar roared and swung upward.
The axe dragged compressed space behind it, gravity stacking until even light bent away from the blade. Kenzo raised his forearm to meet it.
The axe bit in.
For the first time.
Blood sprayed.
Gilmuar's eyes widened.
Kenzo's grin went feral.
Kenzo: THERE IT IS.
Kenzo grabbed the axe head bare handed.
The metal screamed.
Gilmuar felt gravity slip.
Kenzo ripped the weapon free and hurled it aside. The axe did not fly.
It fell.
Straight down.
Disappearing into the erased depth below.
Kenzo surged forward and drove his forehead into Gilmuar's face.
The impact shattered sound.
Gilmuar's skull cracked, blood bursting outward as he was launched across the hollow and slammed into the far edge hard enough to crater what little reality remained.
He pushed himself up instantly, teeth bared.
Gilmuar: You always did hit like a monster.
Kenzo rolled his shoulders, blood dripping down his arm, eyes blazing.
Kenzo: And you always thought weight alone was enough.
Kenzo vanished.
Gilmuar reacted late.
A fist crushed into his side, gravity inside him inverting violently. His organs shifted painfully as he was driven downward, slamming knee first into the erased ground.
Kenzo grabbed his head.
Lifted.
And slammed him back down.
Again.
Again.
Again.
Each impact erased more of the surrounding space, the hollow expanding outward in a widening ring as destruction stacked on destruction.
From the plaza far away, everyone felt it.
Leona clutched her chest.
Leona: This is getting worse.
Cron's eyes narrowed.
Cron: They're not sparring anymore.
Dantero: Yeah no shit.
Tier: If this continues—
He stopped.
Because something else arrived.
Everything froze.
Not stopped.
Obeyed.
The hollow stopped expanding.
The shockwaves died mid motion.
Dust hung motionless.
Sound drained from the world.
Not crushed.
Removed.
The pressure descended.
Not heavy.
Not violent.
Absolute.
Every being across the Dark Empire dropped to their knees instantly.
Not forced.
Compelled.
Spines bowed. Muscles locked. Lungs struggled to draw breath as existence itself bent inward under something far beyond scale.
Leona gasped, hands slamming against the ground.
Tier's tablet shattered completely.
Cron's jaw clenched as he was driven down hard, cracks spiderwebbing beneath his knees.
Dantero couldn't even curse.
Rykaou's senses screamed incoherently, overwhelmed by something that did not register as power, threat, or presence.
It was choice.
Kenzo froze mid strike.
Gilmuar couldn't move.
Both of them felt it.
Above the hollow, the air folded gently.
Lybel stepped into existence.
No hover.
No descent.
He simply stood on nothing.
Arms loose. Expression unreadable. Cloak unmoving despite the vacuum of sound around him.
The world bowed.
Kenzo's grin was gone.
Gilmuar's breath hitched.
Lybel looked down at them.
Silence stretched.
Then—
Lybel exhaled.
The pressure loosened.
Not gone.
Adjusted.
Everyone could breathe again.
Knees remained on the ground, but bones stopped screaming. Organs stabilized. Reality exhaled in relief.
Lybel spoke calmly.
Lybel: Continue.
Kenzo's eyes widened.
Not fear.
Thrill.
Kenzo: ...Heh.
Kenzo slowly straightened, rolling his neck under the crushing weight that still lingered.
Kenzo: You hear that, little brother.
Gilmuar forced himself upright, blood dripping from his chin, gravity settling back around him in heavy spirals.
Gilmuar: Yeah.
Gilmuar: He's watching.
Lybel's gaze never left them.
Lybel: I am observing.
Lybel: Do not disappoint me.
The words were quiet.
The meaning was not.
Kenzo's smile returned.
Sharper.
Kenzo: Guess we're being graded.
Gilmuar clenched his fists.
The world answered.
Gravity did not surge outward.
It folded inward.
The erased hollow twisted as if space itself was being pulled toward a center it could not see. Dust that did not exist began to fall. Light bent sideways. Sound flattened into pressure.
Kenzo felt it instantly.
His boots sank deeper into nothing, the absence beneath him compressing into something dense enough to resist.
Kenzo's grin widened.
Kenzo: There it is.
Gilmuar's breathing slowed, but his chest burned. Something deep inside him strained, pulling energy from places he had never touched before. His veins glowed faintly, not with light, but with weight.
Gilmuar: I can feel it tearing through me.
Kenzo stepped forward.
The ground did not crack.
It vanished another layer.
Kenzo: That's because you're not supposed to live there yet.
Gilmuar raised one hand.
The hum sharpened.
The pressure locked.
Gilmuar: Domain Verse.
The words landed like a verdict.
Gilmuar: Gravitas. Axis of Absolute Weight.
Reality inverted.
The erased hollow was overwritten completely. A vast spherical Verse formed, bound not by walls, but by orientation. There was no up or down. Every direction curved toward Gilmuar as the central axis.
Inside the Domain Verse, gravity was no longer a force.
It was law.
Kenzo's body was dragged inward violently. His armor creaked. Blood burst from his mouth as his organs were pulled slightly out of alignment. The air crushed inward, refusing to exist where Gilmuar did not allow it.
Kenzo dropped to one knee.
For half a second.
Then he laughed.
Kenzo: Hah.
Kenzo planted his hand against the warped ground.
The Domain shuddered.
Kenzo stood.
Slowly.
Against the will of the Verse.
Gilmuar's eyes widened.
Gilmuar: You should not be able to move.
Kenzo rolled his shoulders, bones snapping back into place.
Kenzo: That's because you're enforcing gravity.
Kenzo lifted his head, eyes burning.
Kenzo: And I specialize in what breaks when gravity stops mattering.
Gilmuar's breath hitched.
Blood ran freely from his nose now, dripping onto nothing and vanishing instantly.
Gilmuar: This is my first time.
His voice shook.
Gilmuar: This much Gyuro alignment. This much mass focus.
He clenched his teeth.
Gilmuar: It's draining everything.
Kenzo stepped forward again.
The Domain resisted.
Then slipped.
Kenzo raised two fingers.
No chant.
No buildup.
Kenzo: Domain Trick. Bastion Override.
The Verse screamed.
Not shattered.
Bypassed.
For a fraction of a moment, Kenzo did not exist inside Gravitas.
He existed adjacent to it.
Like a misaligned truth.
Gravity collapsed inward and found nothing to bind.
Kenzo was suddenly in front of Gilmuar.
Too close.
His fist drove forward.
The strike ignored the Domain entirely.
Gilmuar folded.
Blood exploded from his mouth as he was launched backward, slamming into the warped boundary of his own Verse. The Domain flickered violently as his concentration fractured.
Gilmuar crashed down hard, gasping.
Kenzo followed calmly, boots touching down without resistance.
Kenzo: Domain Tricks don't overpower.
Kenzo: They step around.
He looked down at Gilmuar.
Kenzo: Your Domain decides how the world moves.
Kenzo: Mine decides whether I belong to that world at all.
Gilmuar tried to rise.
His arms shook.
The Domain Verse destabilized. Gravity stuttered. The hum became jagged and uneven.
Gilmuar: I can't hold it.
Gilmuar: It's pulling me apart from the inside.
Kenzo crouched slightly, meeting his eyes.
Kenzo: Good.
Kenzo: That means you reached it.
Kenzo straightened and glanced upward.
Lybel still watched.
Unmoving.
Unimpressed.
Kenzo's voice lowered.
Kenzo: He didn't stop this.
Kenzo looked back at Gilmuar.
Kenzo: Because this is where you learn what happens when weight stops being controlled.
Gilmuar forced himself up one last time.
Gravity surged weakly.
The Domain cracked.
Gilmuar: Then teach me.
Kenzo smiled.
Not mocking.
Not cruel.
Proud.
Kenzo: That's what Bastions are for.
The Domain Verse fractured further.
To Be Continued.
End Of Chapter 10.