Valeria woke to a silence that felt wrong.
The usual hum of Aether that flowed through Lythrien was gone. No wind outside. No distant carts rolling over stone. Just a pressure in the air that made her chest feel tight.
Then she felt it.
A pulse.
It didn't come from the ground.
It came from above.
She ran into the corridor. Her father was already there, fully dressed in combat robes, flame sigils glowing faintly along the sleeves.
He never wore those unless something serious was happening.
"Father?"
Go back to your room he said calmly.
"What's happening?"
Before he could answer, the sky split open. A jagged tear of white-gold light stretched across the clouds. The city erupted into screams.
Valeria rushed to the balcony.
High above Lythrien, a massive celestial array rotated slowly rings upon rings of glowing symbols spinning in perfect alignment. The air trembled with each turn.
Then the first beam fell.
It struck the western district.
The explosion flattened buildings instantly. Stone didn't just break it dissolved. A shockwave followed, cracking walls and shattering windows across the city.
Her father stepped beside her.
"They've decided to intervene directly," he said.
"This is because of me."
He turned sharply. "No, This is because they're afraid of what you might become."
Another beam struck closer.
City guards launched counterattacks. Fire dragons, ice spears, compressed wind blades shot upward. None reached their target. The celestial energy erased them midair.
Her father stepped forward.
Flames burst from him.
Not the small controlled threads she knew but a roaring storm. Fire wrapped around his body, forming blazing wings that spread wide across the balcony. The heat was intense enough to crack stone.
Fourth Stage: Sovereign Ember.
Valeria had never seen him release his full cultivation before.
A celestial figure descended toward them. It was taller than any man, its body formed of condensed radiance. Six sigils rotated around it, shifting like living halos.
"Anomaly located," it announced. "Erasure authorized."
A spear of light formed above its palm. The weapon was enormous, humming with compressed energy that distorted the air around it.
Valeria's hollow space reacted instantly.
The celestial energy in the atmosphere bent toward her.
"Don't pull it!" her father shouted.
But it was instinct. The energy felt overwhelming bright, loud, suffocating. Her power tried to absorb it.
The spear launched downward.
Her father moved.
He thrust both hands upward and released a phoenix made of living flame. It screamed as it collided with the descending spear.
The impact detonated like a collapsing star.
The balcony exploded beneath them. Valeria was thrown against a pillar, ears ringing.
Smoke and fire filled the air.
Through the chaos she saw her father engaged in direct combat.
The celestial being split its spear into multiple blades of light and sent them flying in arcs. He countered with spirals of flame that intercepted most but one sliced through his thigh, burning straight through flesh.
He staggered.
The celestial figure descended further, pressing its advantage. It moved with terrifying precision, each strike aimed for vital points. Her father responded with walls of fire that forced it back temporarily, but each exchange drained him.
Another beam formed smaller this time.
Focused.
Aimed directly at her.
Time slowed.
She remembered something suddenly.
She was six years old again, standing in this same clearing outside the city. She had cried because she couldn't ignite even the smallest spark.
Her father had knelt in front of her, brushing dirt from her cheeks.
"Strength isn't loud," he had told her gently. "Sometimes the strongest things are quiet. The sky is loud during storms. But it's silent when it holds the stars."
She had sniffed and asked, "Then what am I?"
He had tapped her forehead lightly.
"You're still becoming."
The memory shattered as the beam fired.
Her father stepped in front of her without hesitation.
The light pierced through his chest.
Everything went still.
The flames around him flickered out instantly.
He collapsed against her.
She caught him, hands slipping in blood that was too warm.
"Father!
His breathing was shallow.
The celestial being raised its hand again.
Valeria felt something tear open inside her. The hollow space expanded violently, pulling stray energy from the battlefield. The air warped around her.
The celestial figure paused as its own residual power began bending toward her unwillingly.
Her father gripped her wrist weakly.
"Listen to me," he forced out.
Tears streamed down her face.
"I can fix this," she said desperately. "I can absorb it. I can pull the damage out.
"No." He coughed, blood staining his lips. "You don't understand your limits yet."
His voice trembled, not from fear but from the effort of staying conscious.
"You must survive this. Promise me you won't let grief control your power."
She shook her head violently. "Don't talk like that."
"Valeria."
She froze.
He rarely used her full name like that.
"You are not weak. You are not a mistake. What lives inside you is older than their laws. It doesn't burn like mine. It doesn't shine like theirs. It endures."
Another tremor shook the building.
His grip tightened briefly.
"If they call you an anomaly then become the one they cannot erase. But don't lose yourself trying to prove them wrong."
Her sobs became uncontrollable.
"I'm not ready," she whispered.
"You don't get to choose when you're ready." A faint, tired smile touched his face. "You only choose whether you stand up after."
His breathing grew uneven.
"I am proud of you," he said quietly. "Not for your power. For your heart."
His hand slipped from her wrist.
His body went still.
There was no dramatic sound.
No final surge of flame.
Just absence.
Something inside her snapped.
The hollow space exploded outward in a violent wave of distorted Aether. The ground fractured. The celestial figure was forced back several meters, its sigils flickering for the first time.
Cracks spread across the massive array in the sky.
From the eastern forest, ancient green sigils rose and formed a protective barrier around the city, intercepting the descending light.
The celestial being assessed the instability for a brief moment before retreating upward with the others.
The sky slowly closed.
The beams stopped.
The city burned quietly in the aftermath.
Valeria remained on the broken balcony, kneeling in rubble and ash, holding her father's body.
People screamed in the distance. Buildings smoldered. Somewhere, someone cried for help.
But all she could hear was the echo of his last words.
You only choose whether you stand up after.
She pressed her forehead against his chest and stayed there until the flames in the district began to die down and the night air turned cold.
By the time the city guards arrived, she wasn't crying anymore.
She was just sitting there, covered in ash and blood, staring at nothing.
And for the first time since her Awakening,
she understood that nothing in her life would ever be simple again.