And then the room seemed to fold inward as the Eshe User moved.

In a blink, Rhys felt the weight slam into his chest — like the air itself had been yanked from his lungs. His knees buckled, his legs rooted to the ground as if chains had been shackled to his bones.

The Gravity Aspect.

The Eshe User didn't just stand in their way — he was pulling the very weight of the world down upon them.

Rhys' vision blurred at the edges, his body growing heavier by the second.

Damnit, I can't move.

Just as the pressure was about to crush him, he saw a blur of motion.

A massive hand shot out—then wham—Rhys was sent sprawling, the impact breaking the Eshe User's hold on him. The sudden release felt like being flung from underwater — air rushed back into Rhys' lungs in a painful gasp.

The Eshe User's calm expression barely flickered.

"So the brute wants to dance," he murmured, his violet tattoo pulsing brighter.

Goro didn't speak. He just charged in like a wrecking ball and the battle erupted.

Goro's feet thundered against the stone floor as he closed the distance. His massive frame moved with surprising speed for a man his size — all raw power and unrelenting force.

The Eshe User waited, unflinching. Then, with a flick of his wrist, the air thickened.

The air thickened around Goro's feet, a crushing force anchoring him to the stone. A direct hit now would be slower and weaker.

But Goro didn't hesitate.

He twisted his body mid-charge, shifting his weight to his back foot, and swung his fist — a brutal, hammer-like hook aimed at the Eshe User's ribs.

The Eshe User stepped back gracefully. He was now faster than before and lighter on his feet. He had used his Aspect to ease gravity's pull on his body.

Rhys had taken notice. He's making himself lighter and Goro heavier.

The punch missed by a hair.

The Eshe User capitalized instantly — planting his foot and sending a knee into Goro's gut, his movement fluid and controlled.

Crack!

Goro grunted but didn't budge, using his sheer mass to absorb the brunt of the blow.

Instead of retreating, Goro lashed out again — this time unleashing a sharp elbow aimed for the Eshe User's jaw.

It connected.

The Eshe User's head snapped to the side, the impact echoing through the chamber. The look on his face suggested that he was surprised by Goro's speed despite his large frame.

But even as he staggered, Rhys noticed something — the Eshe User was already adjusting, shifting the gravity around his own body, making himself heavier to withstand Goro's next attack.

"He's manipulating gravity — not just on us, but on himself." Silas' voice cut through the battle.

Rhys wiped blood from his lip, his chest still aching from the earlier pressure. "Yeah, no kidding."

"No, listen." Silas' eyes darted between the fighters, calculating. "He can increase or decrease the gravity around a target — but it's focused. Limited. He's not affecting the whole room. He is alternating between Goro and himself."

Rhys' mind spun. "So what? He's still strong enough for all of us."

Silas' gaze sharpened. "He's strong, but his Mastery is shallow — somewhere between Awakening and Resonance but no more than that."

Rhys blinked and stared at Silas which prompted Silas to explain.

Silas spoke as he tracked the fight — every strike, every shift in the struggle:

"Awakening is the first level of Eshe mastery — when a user first taps into their Aspect. It's crude, only allowing for basic control. If this guard was still in Awakening, he'd barely be able to shift gravity at all."

Another exchange — Goro landed a shoulder check, but the Eshe User countered by tripling the gravity at the point of contact, forcing Goro to stagger.

"Resonance is the next level," Silas continued. "When an Eshe User starts to connect with their Aspect — letting it flow through them. They stop just controlling their power — they start feeling it."

A cold pit settled in Rhys' stomach.

The Eshe User wasn't there yet, but he didn't have to be.

Goro was holding his ground — but just barely.

The Eshe User kept shifting the battlefield — making himself light enough to dance out of reach, then instantly increasing the gravity around Goro's arms to slow his strikes.

It was a brutal game of give and take — every one of Goro's punches felt like it was dragging through mud, while the Eshe User floated like a feather.

Then… a misstep.

The Eshe User flicked his wrist, doubling the gravity on Goro's knee just as he went to pivot.

The weight was too much. Goro's knee buckled.

Crack!

A brutal kick from the Eshe User sent Goro crashing to the ground. Rhys felt the impact in his bones.

Blood smeared across Goro's mouth as he tried to rise but the Eshe User raised a hand, the air around Goro pressing him down. It became increasingly heavier as time went on and the stone floor cracked open as if to swallow him whole.

Rhys' pulse thumped in his ears.

This was it.

He needed both Silas and Goro to survive but by the looks of it, it was all ending here. None of them were making it out. The room raged around him—the other two Eshe guards were clearing the prisoners, flames licking at the walls, bodies falling—but none of it felt real. Or rather, Rhys hoped it wasn't real.

"I'm out of my depth," declared Rhys.

The biggest fight Rhys had had up until now, ignoring the Marauders, was with some street thugs that lurked around the apartment the Benefactor had gotten him. Word had spread that a kid with no guardian was walking around with money he shouldn't have. He'd been an easy target. Needless to say, Rhys didn't take the robbery lying down and squared up.

But he still lost—his teeth and his cash.

Now he found himself against people who could bend gravity to their will in some other worldly prison! Not to mention the monsters.

I never expected life to be easy, but this? I wouldn't dream of such, even in my worst nightmares.

A part of him was exhausted and gnawed at him to give up but…something snapped.

Nah, I'm not going out like that.

A slight burning sensation shot through his arm. Rhys looked down to see the tattoo on his arm glowing and pulsing crimson and violet. The heat seemed to seep into the chain still dangling from his wrist.

The burning sensation in Rhys' arm grew hotter—like liquid fire coursing just beneath his skin.

It wasn't just pain.

It was awareness.

Every muscle, every bone, every nerve — he could feel them. The ache in his ribs from the gravity crushing him moments ago, the sting on his lip from being tossed aside, the subtle tremor in his hand still clutching the chain. It was as if his body had been forced wide open — raw and exposed — yet somehow in perfect sync.

And the chain…

The chain responded.

The iron links dangling from his wrist began to heat, not from the surrounding flames — but from within. A single spark flickered to life at the base of the chain, black and faint, before twisting into a flare of crimson and violet.

The flame didn't just burn—it moved. It slithered along the chain like a living serpent, crackling between black and crimson, pulsing in sync with the tattoo on Rhys' arm.

His heart pounded, not from fear, but from something far more primal.

"What… the hell…" Rhys muttered, his voice hoarse.

The Eshe User's gaze flicked to the chain, his confident smirk faltering. The violet glow of his gravity Aspect seems duller now — like the fire at Rhys' wrist was swallowing the very light from the room.

"Master Rhys—" Silas started, but the words didn't register.

Because Rhys was already moving.

The chain flared.

The black flame ignited along its length, rippling between crimson and violet as Rhys charged towards the Eshe User…