The world did not snap back into focus. It oozed.
The blinding white from K's snap thinned like milk stirred into water, revealing the nightmare geometry beneath. A deep, sub-audible hum vibrated through the soles of Deo's shoes, resonating in his teeth, his bones. It was the idling engine of creation.
What… is that? Deo thought, the words sluggish in his stunned mind. It's not a sound. It's… pressure.
Then, sensation. The air was thick, syrupy.
Gods, breathing is like drowning in light. It carried a taste the clean, sterile tang of ozone undercut by the flat, metallic flavor of nothingness. It was air that had never touched a lung.
Finally, sight resolved, and his mind buckled.
They stood on a platform of pearlescent material, warm underfoot, floating in an infinite expanse. There was no ground below, no sky above.
Direction is a lie here.
Space itself was sick. It folded in on itself in impossible patterns. Rivers of nebulous energy shimmering silver and gold and colors without names flowed in lazy, non-Euclidean curves. In the distance, structures loomed, shapes that defied classification. They were simply there.
The light had no source. It cast no shadows. It was the ultimate exposure.
Anya's hand was a vise around his. He felt the fine tremors running through her arm.
Her hand is shaking. Or is that me?
He dared a glance. Her face was pale, lips parted. Her eyes were wide, not with fear alone, but with a devastated awe.
She's not looking at a place. She's seeing a concept. And it's too big.
"Home sweet home."
K's voice was different here. It wasn't louder, but it was clearer, cutting through the silence without echo.
He spread his arms wide. "The Anvil's Forge. The Hyperbolic Time Chamber. My personal gym." He dropped his arms, all theatrics gone, replaced by a flat seriousness. "Pick a name. They're all dreadfully dramatic."
He turned fully to them, and his gaze was a physical weight.
"Right. Boot camp rules. Pay attention. I'm only saying this once, and the next two thousand years will be a lot more unpleasant if you get it wrong."
Two thousand years.
The phrase landed in Deo's gut like a lead weight. It was an abstract threat in the council chamber. Here, it became real. A prison sentence measured in centuries.
This isn't a test. It's a lifespan.
K paced a slow circle. His boots made no sound.
"Rule One," his voice a low rumble. "This place is real. The energy is real. The strain on your mind, your body, your soul… is real. If you die in here, you're just dead. No resets. No do-overs."
He stopped in front of Deo.
Those eyes… they see right through me.
"Rule Two: Control, not power. You…" he gestured at Deo's core, "...are a waterfall. Impressive. Destructive. Ultimately useless. I'm going to teach you to be a laser. Focused. Precise. Your first instinctto push, to explode, to force is the instinct of a child. You will learn. Or you will break."
He turned to Anya. She stiffened.
Don't look away. Don't you dare look away.
"Rule Three: You are not a passenger." The words were absolute. "You are a balancing weight. You think you're here to hold his hand? Sentimental. And wrong. You are his tether. You will learn to feel the energy. If he slips, you pull him back. If you can't, you both fail. And failure here isn't a bad grade. It's extinction."
Anya swallowed, a dry click. "How?" The word was a whisper, but it held.
How can she even speak?
"By starting at the beginning," K said. "With a single breath." He settled into a stance. "The Divine Breath. The First Form. Control your breath, you control the energy. Control the energy, you control your reality."
He demonstrated. A slow, deep draw. The ambient energy bent, flowing into him in a smooth, visible helix of light. He held it. A statue of contained potential. Then he exhaled. The energy flowed back out, settling around his feet like a placid, shimmering pool.
It looks… easy. It can't be that easy.
"Your turn," K said. "Don't try to be me. Just try to be quiet."
Deo looked at Anya. Her face was pale, but the determination was there. That fierce light he knew well.
The look she gets when the world is unfair. He gave her hand one final squeeze and let go.
He copied K's stance. He took a breath.
It was like trying to sip from a firehose.
Raw, undiluted power far purer and more violent than anything he'd ever felt rammed down his throat.
It burns! It's not energy it's the idea of energy!
The chaotic storm he carried within him roared in answer. Light jagged, uncontrolled crackled around him. The platform shuddered. A nearby river of energy flinched away.
Beside him, Anya's attempt was a softer glow, a gentle drawing-in. But the strain was evident.
She's holding on. Just barely.
The energy inside Deo hit a wall. He couldn't hold it.
It's going to
It erupted from him in a choked gasp, a burst of concussive force that slapped against Anya, making her stumble. The released energy dissipated with a sound like tearing silk.
Silence returned, heavier than before.
"Pathetic," K stated. Flat. A fact. "But expected. Now do it again."
Deo's head snapped up. "Again? But we just"
We just failed. Spectacularly.
"failed," K interrupted. "So you try again. And again. And again. For a year. For a decade. Until it's not a thought, but a reflex. Until your very cells forget how to breathe any other way." A sharp, dangerous smile touched his lips. "The math is simple, kid. You have two thousand years to learn what others spend ten thousand mastering. We don't have time for you to 'just' do anything."
The horrifying scope of it crashed down.
Not days. Not months. Millennia. Of this. Of failure. In a place with no sun, no moon… just an endless, silent, luminous now.
The fear was a cold, sharp knot in his chest.
K saw it. He always saw everything.
"The fear is good," he said, his voice losing none of its edge. "Hold onto it. It's the first and last thing you'll ever truly own in here. Now. Breathe."
Deo looked at Anya. She was already closing her eyes for the next attempt, jaw clenched.
She's scared. But she's not yielding.
He saw her own fear, and right beside it, that stubborn refusal to break.
He took his place beside her. His anchor. His tether.
I won't yield either.
He closed his eyes, shutting out the impossible vista.
And for the second time, he breathed.
The first moment of two thousand years had begun.