Veyne Mansion, Master Bedroom - Later That Night
Kael was not asleep. He sat in a chair by the window, watching the moonlit grounds. His suit within arms reach. The air in the room grew cold, not from the night, but from a familiar, oppressive presence that seeped through the walls. The shadows in the corner of the room deepened, coalescing into the form of Vlad Plasmius, his red eyes burning with silent, promised violence.
He said nothing. He simply appeared, a phantom in the bedroom, his very presence a violation and a threat.
Kael didn't startle. He didn't even turn his head fully away from the window. He merely glanced toward the specter in the corner, his expression one of profound annoyance, as if disturbed by a buzzing fly.
" I have been waiting for a long time, Plasmius," Kael said, his voice calm. "Your time management is terrible, Mr. Masters."
"You humiliated me," Vlad's voice was a low, devoid of its human charm. "You think your recovery can make you arrogant. You really don't understand the system, do you"
" Time will tell that. let's not judge so soon, shall we.," Kael said, finally turning to face him, "if you unleash your power here, in this house, in this neighborhood, you will accomplish what even I could not. you will bring every government agency down on both of us. Is that what you want? To be hunted by the whole world?"
He stood up. "You want a fight, Plasmius? Then stop skulking in bedrooms. It's beneath you."
Kael transformed into his specter form. Hw walked past the shimmering form of the ghost, through his own bedroom wall as if it were air, and emerged onto the lawn outside. He hovered a foot above the grass, a silhouette against the moon.
He pointed toward the dark, sprawling line of the forest on the edge of the property.
"The forest. No witnesses. No collateral damage. That is the only place where this will be settled. If you have the nerve."
Without waiting for a reply, he turned and shot toward the trees, a streak of electric blue cutting through the darkness.
Vlad Plasmius remained in the empty bedroom for a second longer, seething at being toyed by others. But the call was logical. The boy was right. With a final, furious glare at the empty room, he streamed after the blue streak, toward the agreed-upon battleground.
The storm had begun. The fight began not with a blast, but with a blink.
Vlad Teleported—a silent, instantaneous flicker—reappearing inside Kael's guard with a palm strike aimed at his chest. It wasn't meant to vaporize, but to disrupt his core.
Temporal Perception flared. Kael saw the move a crucial half-second before it landed. He didn't block; he Phased. Vlad's hand passed through his intangible torso. In the same motion, Kael's leg solidified and swept through Vlad's ankles, also phased, attempting to disrupt his balance.
Vlad simply Teleported again, reappearing five feet away, his smile never fading. "Good. Very good. Your control has improved."
What followed was a silent, deadly ballet under the canopy. This was not a battle of overwhelming power; it was a contest of supreme skill and efficiency.
Vlad would Teleport-Strike, and Kael would Foresight-Phase-Dodge.
Kael would lunge with an Inferno Strike, and Vlad would Intangibly let it pass through him before Duplicating, the copy flanking Kael with a precise Plasmius Blast aimed to disable, not destroy.
Kael answered with his own Duplication, the two Tempests moving in perfect sync, one Phasing through a tree to avoid the blast while the other unleashed a Blue-Fire Ray that Vlad deflected with a small, efficient Ghost Shield.
They were testing each other's defenses, their stamina, their mastery of the fundamentals. Trees were occasionally nicked, their bark scorched by near-misses or sliced by errant energy, but the surrounding forest remained largely untouched. It was a brutal, high-stakes game of chess played at supersonic speeds.
Vlad's patience began to wear thin. "You're stalling. It's getting boring," he hissed, his movements becoming sharper, more aggressive. "Let's see how efficient you are under real pressure."
He stopped teleporting. He planted his feet and unleashed a Plasmius Maximus, but compressed it—a dense, lance-like beam of energy designed to pierce, not explode. It was a sniper shot, not a bomb.
The move was designed to bypass Kael's intangibility by pure, focused power. Kael couldn't phase through it; he had to stop it.
"Temporal Crush!"
Kael focused the time-freezing effect not on Vlad, but on the beam itself. The air in front of him solidified. The lance of crimson energy stuttered, its advance slowing to a crawl for a critical two seconds. The strain was immense; holding back that much concentrated power felt like trying to stop a freight train with his bare hands.
Sweat beaded on his forehead. This was it. Vlad was forcing him to the absolute limit of his B-Tier capabilities. He was demonstrating the gulf in raw power and stamina.
"See?" Vlad taunted, pouring more energy into the beam, causing the temporal field to crack. "You can barely hold it! You fight with finesse, but finesse breaks against true might!"
The pressure was unbearable. Kael's core screamed in protest. Vlad was right. He was hitting his ceiling. He could either break and be run through, or...
...or he could stop fighting the current and become the ocean.
Instead of pushing back, Kael gave way. He dropped the Temporal Crush, but not to dodge. He embraced the incoming energy, not to be destroyed by it, but to use its pressure as the anvil to his hammer.
He reached deep into his core, into the well of power refined by the Crystalisks and his own iron will. He didn't pull from it; he shattered the dam holding it back.
"Temporal Howl!"
But this wasn't the wild, suicidal scream of before. It was a controlled, focused detonation. A sphere of distorted time and blue-silver energy erupted from him, meeting the Plasmius Maximus not with opposing force, but with canceling frequency. The two beams didn't explode; they annihilated each other in a silent, blinding flash of white light that washed the color from the forest for a single, breathtaking second.
When the light faded, Kael Veyne was still standing. But he was changed.
His electric blue aura, which had been a active flame, was now a calm, deep, blue-like radiance. It didn't flicker; it pulsed with steady, immense power. The silver ripples within it smoothed into vast, cosmic waves. The very air around him was still and heavy, as if time itself bowed to his presence.
He had done it. Under the immense pressure of Vlad's focused attack, he had broken through his limits. He had achieved perfect efficiency, ultimate control, and boundless stamina simultaneously. He felt the cape again. This time connected with him permanently and not like before dissipating after a while. During the ascension, as his aura expands, the silver energy within it doesn't just ripple—it coalesces behind him. It settles on his shoulders, feeling not like added weight, but like a natural extension of his power. His hud gave readings,
<<< ASCENSION PROTOCOL: COMPLETE. >>>
<<< ECTO-RANK: A-TIER. >>>
<<< STATUS: DOMAIN MASTER. >>>
Vlad Plasmius took a step back, his composed mask shattering into pure, unadulterated shock. The smug superiority vanished, replaced by the stunned realization that he was no longer looking at a talented upstart, but at an equal.
"You..." he breathed, the word barely a whisper.
Kael looked at him, his new A-Tier Temporal Perception seeing the flows of energy, the slight tension in Vlad's form, the furious calculations behind his eyes. He saw the entire fight, past and future, as a single, manageable equation. He knew, with absolute certainty, that he could not defeat Vlad Masters today. But he also knew, with that same certainty, that Vlad could no longer defeat him.
"This ends now, Plasmius," Kael said, his voice resonating with a new, profound authority that seemed to quiet the forest itself. "You cannot win here. Not without breaking our silent agreement and bringing a world of trouble down on us both. And I will not let you."
To emphasize the point, Kael didn't attack. He simply raised a hand. Energy Dispersion, his new combined move. The lingering ecto-energy in the clearing—the scorch marks on the trees, the fading heat from their blasts—simply dissipated. He imposed calm on the environment itself, a display of absolute control that was more terrifying than any destructive blast.
Vlad seethed, his fists clenched so tight his knuckles were white. He knew it was true. A prolonged, all-out fight between two A-Tiers would inevitably spill out of the forest. It would create an energy signature that would light up government sensors like a Christmas tree. It was a stalemate forged in mutual self-interest.
The cold strategist in Vlad reasserted itself. The rage on his face receded, replaced by something far more dangerous icy, calculating hatred.
"A stalemate, then," he conceded, his voice dripping with venom. "How cunning of you. You've calculated me thoroughly. You used me for your ascension. You are just like me. Using power to achieve your goals."
"The offer still stands," Vlad said, though the tone was no longer an offer, but a statement of fact. "We need not be enemies. Our potential together is limitless. We can rule the world together. You and me, we are superiors to both human and ghost. We do not need to hide from them We can rule them like kings."
Kael's replied seriously "I'm not like you. You almost killed me and destroyed my future. I used you in return for my ascension. We are even now. You will leave my town, and my people, alone. This is the only warning. I'm not interested in meaningless fights. But that doesn't mean I will sit back and watch you doing whatever you want in my town. Leave here."
He wasn't asking. He was stating the new reality and the difference between them.
Vlad held his gaze for a long, silent moment. The message was received. The stalemate was absolute. With a final, slow nod that was both a surrender and a promise of future games, Vlad Plasmius left, leaving Kael alone in the silent, unharmed forest.