[The Return of the Empress]
Riha's soul slammed back into her physical body with the force of a supernova. She gasped, her eyes snapping open, now swirling with a deep, cosmic violet.
To the Council watching the screens, she had been gone for twenty-four hours. To Riha, she had endured a year of absolute silence and mental evolution. The air around her cracked with a Level 1 Peak Stage mental power.
The ancient voice boomed through the hall: "Gate Two Clear. Reward: Mental Peak reached. Chakra Breakthrough imminent. Weapon Fusion initiated."
Riha didn't hesitate. She threw the Chandra-Has and the Chronos-Dagger into the air. They collided, melting into a single, terrifying weapon: The Chronos-Lunar Eclipse. It was a dual-bladed curved sword that looked like it was forged from the dark side of the moon, pulsing with the power to slow time with every swing.
[The Forbidden Gate]
Riha walked toward the Altar of Truth to begin her final test. When she placed her hand on the cold stone, the Altar didn't just glow—it screamed. A massive, gold-and-black gate, hidden for thousands of years, groaned open.
"The Third Gate!" a Council member shrieked, falling out of his chair. "That hasn't opened since the First Emperor! It doesn't summon beasts... it summons them."
[ The Green Envoy]
Riha stepped into the arena. Huge, curved statues towered over her, but the center was empty—until a streak of green lightning hit the ground.
A massive, green metallic humanoid stood there. It was terrifyingly beautiful, covered in a liquid-metal skin that shifted between solid and fluid. Its hair was a mass of writhing green tentacles.
Shockingly, it looked at Riha and began to shrink, its metal body compressing until it was her exact height.
"A human?" the creature spoke, its voice a haunting, melodic chime. "I haven't fought your species in eons. Do not worry, little girl. If I die here, my true body on Planet Xylos simply wakes up. But if you die... you are erased."
[ The Losing Battle]
The fight began in a blur of green and violet.
The creature was a nightmare. It could turn its limbs into liquid to dodge her strikes, then instantly harden them into diamond-sharp thorns.
Riha summoned the Chronos-Lunar Eclipse and her Sovereign Staff, trying to fight with both her mind and her body. But the strain was too much. Every time she tried to use the time-slowing power of the Eclipse, the creature shot three metallic veins from its chest, forcing her to teleport away.
Clang!
The creature's fist, now a heavy liquid-metal hammer, slammed into her staff. Riha flew backward, her lungs burning. She was exhausted. Her physical attacks did nothing to the shifting metal, and her mental weapons couldn't find a "mind" to grip in the creature's cold, alien logic.
Riha (Internal Monologue): I can't defend and attack at the same time. If I don't find a way to fuse my physical and mental strikes into one... I'm going to die in this tomb.