Kutote Tuo and Nuelle Ness
Kutote Tuo stood still as his personalized Power kanji activated.
The rune settled against his forehead, glowing faintly.
Stabilizing Power
安力
To Kutote, power had never been about excess.
It was never about overwhelming force or spectacle.
Power was about measure.
The right amount.
At the right time.
For the right reason.
Everything he had witnessed since awakening two years ago had taught him that lesson. The screams. The blood. The laboratories hidden beneath Brandish's surface. The endless experiments performed on children who never had the chance to grow up.
He had run.
From the lab.
From Brandish.
From himself.
From the power that frightened him more than any enemy ever could.
He would have continued running forever if he had not stumbled into Carpathia.
The man had saved him—literally and metaphorically.
They had not spoken much. Carpathia was not a man of many words. Yet in silence, Kutote learned something far more valuable than instruction.
Power did not need to explode.
It did not need to announce itself with light or thunder.
Power existed to correct imbalance.
To stabilize what had gone wrong.
To those who hurt him—and those who continued to hurt children like him—Kutote would show what true power looked like.
Measured.
Controlled.
Unyielding.
Nuelle Ness stood beside him, her own personalized Power kanji activating in response.
When Headmaster Kime first introduced the concept of Runes, she had been among the first five trainees selected to endure the disorder of a miniature world.
She survived not through brute strength, but because of her innate ability.
Nuelle had always been able to manipulate natural forces.
Gravity.
Lift.
Density.
These forces bent to her will as naturally as breathing. For most of her life, it had felt… normal.
But during her training, she learned something unsettling.
The world was upheld by laws.
Before that lesson, controlling gravity or density had felt intuitive—almost trivial. Afterward, it felt wrong.
A question began to haunt her.
Was she manipulating natural forces through interaction with runes?
Or was she directly interfering with the laws that governed reality?
The answer eluded her.
By the third day, she was left with more questions than certainty.
Then, clarity struck.
Natural forces, runes, and laws were intertwined—but they were not the same.
Her manipulation of natural forces had always been fueled by SE. But runes did not consume energy.
Laws did not consume energy.
They simply were.
That realization changed everything.
She did not need more power.
She needed authority.
So she stopped using SE.
Her hands wove through the required seals with effortless familiarity—like a trained hound responding to its master.
Her personalized Power kanji appeared.
Controlling Power
制力
Nuelle exhaled slowly.
This was not dominance.
This was recognition.
Kutote moved first.
His hands ignited as he unleashed Resendo, flames coiling around his fists. Nuelle twisted the laws of motion themselves, bending space to allow him close the distance in an instant.
Stability met Control.
Their battle had only just begun.
---
Tobi Fustavo and Candice Laīde
Candice Laīde barely avoided the boulder hurled toward her.
She leapt backward, landing lightly as stone shattered where she had stood. There was no hesitation now.
Her technique—Pathfinder—relied on stealth.
Without concealment, its lethality dropped dramatically. Pathfinder excelled in rapid, singular bursts, not drawn-out exchanges.
Against an opponent like Tobi—whose technique granted him overwhelming physical prowess—sneaking up on him or vanishing from his senses was far more difficult than usual.
Which meant she had been forced to activate her personalized Power rune far earlier than planned.
Power, to Candice, was about the moment.
If there were one word to describe it, it would be:
Omnipotence.
She had lived a relatively peaceful life compared to many of the Academy's heavy hitters. To her, power was not some abstract principle that governed existence itself.
She was the third of five children. A middle child born into a middle-class family.
Her father worked as a clerk under the mayor of their town.
Her mother was a seamstress who ran a small shop catering to minor nobility.
Candice was also the only girl.
From the moment she became aware of the world, she lived freely. Being the only daughter, she was forgiven excesses her brothers never were.
If she wanted something, she got it.
Yes—she had been a brat.
That illusion shattered when a demonic beast invasion tore through their town.
Reality was merciless.
Living only in the present was meaningless.
What mattered was understanding the moment—before, during, and after it occurred.
That, to Candice, was power.
The ability to stand at the center of time and act without hesitation.
Omnipotent Power
全力
Her kanji appeared with subtlety, as though it had always existed—waiting for her to reach this point in time.
She moved.
With the grace of a gazelle.
With the lethality of a lioness.
Pathfinder activated.
Candice now controlled not only the boulders Tobi had thrown—but those he intended to throw.
Her technique allowed her to telepathically control anything she gazed upon with Intent.
Before awakening authority, the process had been cumbersome.
Identify the object.
Focus intent.
Overpower natural resistance.
Set direction.
Now?
The laws themselves recognized her authority.
The hardest step had vanished.
She reveled in it.
Several boulders—each three times her size—were flung toward Tobi with ease, forcing him onto the defensive.
Tobi Fustavo.
A name burdened by legacy.
He came from a long line of Beast Walkers—warriors capable of partially transforming into their spiritual animals.
The Fustavo Clan of Proud Lions resided in the royal nation of Brandish.
Among them, Tobi was spoken of in hushed tones.
A child of prophecy.
Born beneath a falling star. Destined to restore the clan's former glory.
The prophecy did not lie.
Tobi possessed the purest beast form the clan had seen in five hundred years.
And yet—fate mocked him.
Despite his lineage and potential, he was born with an abysmally low SE concentration.
Beast Walkers required vast SE reserves to maintain their transformations.
Tobi had none.
Blessed by heaven.
Cursed by mortality.
The clan pushed him relentlessly. Trained him as the future Patriarch.
He had no friends among children his age. His existence was a threat to those of purer lineage.
An invisible wall formed between him and the rest.
Yet Tobi endured.
He did the impossible.
He used his family technique without sufficient SE.
Again.
And again.
Until it became instinct.
He shattered his limits. Then shattered them again.
The pride of a Lion King never faltered.
Neither did his.
He refused to be mediocre.
Power, to Tobi, was Pride.
The authority of a king that never bowed.
Prideful Power
誇力
His roar did not come from his throat.
It emanated from his very being.
His body transformed. Muscles surged. His frame expanded, towering nearly ten feet tall.
This was not the roar of a lion.
This was the roar of a king.
---
Korimer Ransthrol and Bukanami Ao
Korimer Ransthrol had always been the best.
He knew it.
It was not pride.
It was certainty.
The level of power he accessed at five years old surpassed what most trainees would witness in a lifetime.
Not even the assassin from the East—Shzekcl—could claim otherwise.
After all, Korimer was the son of Enasto Ransthrol.
One of the Five Legends.
From childhood, Korimer watched his father rule.
He was the fourth—and most adored—son.
Loved. Pampered. Acknowledged as different.
He resembled his father not only in appearance, but in talent.
At five, he mastered the Ransthrol martial arts.
At seven, he awakened the Crimson Flames.
At thirteen, he inherited Asolith, his father's mythical weapon.
At Four Stars Academy, he was undisputed.
He was powerful—and aware of it.
But power unchecked led to ruin.
He would not become like his third brother.
Korimer stood firm.
Not like trees that bent and broke.
But like those rooted so deeply they knelt to none.
Power did not bend.
Power did not yield.
Power was Sovereignty.
Sovereign Power
王力
Bukanami Ao watched him carefully.
Underestimating Korimer would be fatal.
The only way to win was to surpass his authority—not strength.
Bukanami's life had taught him a brutal truth.
Power existed above.
It was not shared.
It was recognized.
Born to a broken home, raised by a mother who sold her body to survive, Bukanami grew up surrounded by fleeting men and hollow nights.
He loved his mother.
When she fell ill, he watched her decay.
When she died, he snapped.
He killed the men who had taken everything from him.
A certain man saw the truth.
Took him in.
Gave him weapons.
Power, to Bukanami, was Supremacy.
Supreme Power
至力
The two moved simultaneously.
Sovereignty clashed with Supremacy.
Conviction met Ideology.
The balance of power shattered.
.
.
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Spiritual Energy (SE)
Spiritual Sea (SS)
Spiritual Signature (SST)