On the grand stage of the Zenith Tech Conclave, the very air had become a physical weight, thick and suffocating. A golden, heat-haze shimmer, the visible manifestation of Lyra's terrifying Aether, warped the space around her outstretched hand.
Beneath her feet, the reinforced plasteel of the stage groaned under the strain, a spiderweb of fractures spreading outwards from the sheer pressure of her existence. The gale she generated whipped her hair and clothes into a frenzy, a contained hurricane with her at its eye.
Behind her, Orion stood as an island of impossible calm, his presence a stark, serene contrast to the maelstrom his sister had unleashed.
Further back, safely behind the shimmering hexagonal plates of the stadium's emergency barrier, Elysia and Lisanna watched. Elysia's hand was pressed against the energy field, her expression a cocktail of pure, heart-stopping awe and nervous terror.
Lisanna, however, was practically vibrating with exhilaration, her eyes wide with a thrill that bordered on worship.
For Cassian Valerian, this was a waking nightmare. His meticulously crafted world of noble composure and inherent superiority had not just cracked; it had been irrevocably shattered.
A crushing, invisible force bore down on his chest, constricting his lungs, making each gasp for air a desperate struggle. Even as he frantically surged his own Aether, a defiant act against the suffocating pressure, it felt like trying to hold back the tide with his bare hands.
Lyra's lips curled into a slow, cruel smirk as she watched him struggle, his face pale and slick with sweat.
"Hey, what's wrong now?" she mocked, her voice a predatory purr that still carried effortlessly through the gale. "Don't tell me this is all it takes to make you sweat. I'm just casually stretching my bones here. How utterly embarrassing for you."
"Damnit!" The insult, layered on top of the primal fear now clawing at his insides, was too much. Pride and rage surged, a tidal wave of emotion that momentarily eclipsed his terror.
With a guttural roar that was more animal than man, Cassian unleashed a torrent of Aether, pouring nearly every ounce of his core's energy into the simple act of standing his ground. Concentrated streams of brilliant blue water Aether erupted around him, coalescing into a swirling tempest as his presence surged to its absolute peak.
"Good," Lyra sneered, her silver eyes flashing with predatory light. She didn't lunge, she didn't rush. She simply shot forward, crossing the distance in an instant that defied perception.
Her palm swept outwards in a simple, open-handed slap. But this was no mere physical blow. The movement itself was a catalyst, unleashing a focused, horrific whirlwind of kinetic force.
The very air in front of her hand compressed and screamed, and a fresh wave of splintering cracks raced across the stage floor, a testament to the power contained in that deceptively simple motion.
"HOW DARE YOU!" Cassian bellowed, his survival instincts screaming as he executed the most powerful defensive technique in his arsenal.
With a gesture of profound complexity, he condensed the tempest of water Aether around him, weaving it with breathtaking speed into the form of an ancient, sprawling tree. Its trunk was thick and gnarled, its branches spread wide, and every leaf glistened with a light that seemed both liquid and solid. The advanced Valerian Aether Suit he wore flashed brilliantly, amplifying his power and pouring its own energy into the construct.
The Great Spirit Water Tree materialized in its full glory, a shimmering, aquamarine beacon of absolute defense. Its power radiated outwards, a palpable force that caused even the seasoned C-Rank heroes in the audience to tremble in their shielded seats.
They trembled not in fear of the tree, but in awe of its legendary status and utter disbelief at the scene unfolding.
"It's… it's the Great Spirit Water Tree," one hero, a veteran known for his unbreakable will, muttered in a hushed, incredulous tone. "The pinnacle of Valerian defensive arts. I've seen footage of it withstanding a coordinated assault from three C-Rank villains without so much as a scratch, and yet…"
"That girl's power… it's still dominating it!" another hero blurted out, his voice cracking. "The pressure… it hasn't lessened at all!"
On the stage, a flicker of triumphant mania lit Cassian's eyes. He truly believed that in this clash, his superior technique, the heritage of his bloodline combined with the pinnacle of their technology, would prove their undeniable supremacy. No matter how monstrous this strange girl's raw power was, skill and legacy would prevail.
Disaster struck before the thought could even fully form.
Lyra simply chuckled, a sound of pure, dismissive amusement at the sight of his ultimate defense. Her hand, now fully wreathed in a blinding sheath of golden, vibrating Aether, struck out without an ounce of hesitation.
CRRAAAAAASSSSHHH!
The sound was not a collision. It was a reality-breaking detonation. A thunderous, deafening scream of tortured energy and imploding force tore through the stadium.
The Great Spirit Water Tree did not break, shatter, or even crack. It was instantly, utterly, and completely vaporized. In one moment, it was a symbol of impenetrable defense; in the next, it ceased to exist, atomized into a swirling cloud of billions of microscopic water droplets that filled the stage like a fine, shimmering mist.
A violent shockwave, the attack's aftershock, slammed into the audience's energy barrier, causing the entire stadium to groan as the hexagonal plates hummed violently.
"Wha—what!?" Cassian's eyes bulged, his mind refusing to process the annihilation he had just witnessed. In that infinitesimal moment of absolute shock, his defenses were gone, his mind was blank, and it was impossible to avoid what came next.
SLAP!
The sound was shockingly clear, a crisp, wet clap of flesh meeting flesh that echoed through the stunned silence with sickening finality.
"AHH!" A raw, agonized shriek tore from Cassian's throat as his entire world spun violently away. A crimson spray of blood, mixed with the white fragments of shattered teeth, erupted from his mouth.
That single, contemptuous slap had not only bypassed his Aether defenses but had also shattered the innate protective field of his high-tech suit before savagely connecting with his face.
Lyra's cruel, beautiful smile widened as she felt bone and molars cracking under her palm.
Cassian's body was launched into the air, spinning like a broken marionette before he crashed down and rolled pathetically across the stage, leaving a thick, disgusting trail of blood in his wake.
Even as he tumbled, a hurricane of unfathomable rage and soul-crushing humiliation howled through his being.
"DAMNIT!" he roared through a mouthful of blood and broken teeth, desperately surging what little Aether he could muster to halt his momentum and fight off the invasive vibrational energy that was tearing through his body.
He skidded to a halt on his hands and knees and, unable to contain the internal damage, smashed a fist onto the stage floor, leaving a deep dent in the plasteel as he spewed another mouthful of blood.
"Hmph," Lyra sneered, her voice dripping with disdain as the entire audience watched, their eyes wider and their minds more boggled than they had ever been in their lives.
"Pathetic." She began to walk slowly towards Cassian's broken form, each soft footstep landing like a hammer blow on the collective psyche of Zenith City's elite.
"ENOUGH!"
The command ripped through the air. From the shadows surrounding the stage, five figures blurred into existence. They were the Valerian elite guards, clad in advanced Aether suits that mirrored Cassian's, their auras superimposed on one another to create a single, unified wave of power.
Five Aether-infused swords, gleaming with deadly light, slashed through the air in a perfectly coordinated assault aimed at ending Lyra's life.
But Lyra merely blinked, her expression one of utter boredom. She moved with a speed that made their elite charge look like it was happening in slow motion.
"Scram," she spat. With a flick of her fingers, she unleashed five distinct, razor-thin streams of vibrating golden energy. They shot through the air with the sound of a million angry hornets, visible only as brief, incandescent trails.
The streams met the Aether-encased swords and the result was absolute. The blades were brutally bashed aside with zero resistance, as if they were made of paper-mâché.
Without losing an iota of momentum, the Aether streams continued their trajectory and savagely smashed into the chests of the Valerian guards.
"AHHH!" Five synchronized howls of anguish erupted as blood sprayed from their armored forms like a crimson mist.
They were sent flying backward like human cannonballs, their bodies crashing violently into the distant stadium walls with a series of sickening, bone-shattering crunches.
Cassian, still on his hands and knees, froze completely at the sight. A cold dread, far deeper than any he had ever known, washed over him.
"How…" he uttered, his voice a hoarse whisper. "They are our Elite Guard Squadron…"
For an event of this magnitude, he had brought the best. Warriors whose power and skill were renowned. And they had been swatted away like flies.
A smile of pure, unadulterated glee spread across Lyra's face as she savored his despair.
"Enough of this!"
It was at that moment a new voice entered the fray. It was not a shout, but a booming roar, a sound filled with such absolute authority and immense power that it seemed to shake the foundations of the stadium itself.
An oppressive aura, an ocean of power that made the Elite Guard Squadron seem like puddles, descended upon the stage like a falling star.
From the highest point of the stadium's domed ceiling, a large, gleaming pillar of sapphire light soared straight down, aimed directly at Lyra's head.
Within that pillar was a figure that looked like a divine warrior, wreathed in an armor of flowing, churning water and wielding a massive greatsword. The water swirling around him was more than just a shield; it was a vortex of blades, sharper than any steel.
"Ah! It's him!" a collective gasp rippled through the heroes and nobles. Many trembled, their awe tinged with primal fear. Even protected by the barrier, they felt infinitesimally small, as if they could be slashed to ribbons by that presence alone.
Cassian's bloodied, swollen face twisted into a sneering, triumphant smile as he laughed weakly through the pain. "Let's see you survive this one, you rat!"
Lyra merely curled her brows, her expression one of mild annoyance.
And Orion, for the first time, simply chuckled.
A new pressure, an icy, soul-deep cold that felt as if it could freeze the very concept of heat, howled out from him. An explosion of Aether energy, utterly distinct and just as terrifying as Lyra's, shocked the world once more.
"What is this!?"
"Another one!? What is going on!?"
This new pulse of power, even felt through the barrier, frightened the heroes and nobles to their very core. It was a power that felt absolute, pristine, and lethally sharp, as if it could cut through anything in existence.
"What!?" The man wreathed in water Aether, hurtling downwards like a vengeful god, felt a tremor of genuine fear lance through him for the first time in decades.
But in that moment, his target had already changed. Orion flicked his hand with a motion so casual it was insulting. From between his fingers, a small pike of glacial ice materialized. It was not white or blue, but a sliver of frozen midnight, a shard of absolute zero so cold it seemed to absorb the light around it. It soared upwards, not with a roar, but with a terrifying, silent hiss.
"Damnit!" the descending warrior roared, his divine momentum thrown into chaos.
He was forced to forcibly shift his trajectory, wrenching his body in mid-air to block this terrifying new attack. His own Aether suit flared frantically, attempting to output even more energy to bolster his defense.
BOOOOOMMM!
A deafening concussion, a reality-rending detonation of force and temperature, shook the very foundations of the stadium. The man who had seemed so impossibly imposing, the divine executioner who had frightened everyone into submission, was violently and unceremoniously blasted out of the sky.
His protective armor of water Aether nearly shattered apart, flickering like a dying light. The great broadsword was almost ripped from his grasp as a violent, unstoppable force, like a mountain crashing into him, slammed into his body.
He smashed roughly onto the stage, skipping across its surface like a stone on water before he hurriedly surged his Aether to grind to a halt.
The man leveled a hard, furious glare towards Orion as he slowly pushed himself to his feet, doing his absolute best to hide the tremor in his arms and the coppery taste of blood that was rising in his throat.
Cassian trembled violently, not from pain or rage, but from pure, world-ending disbelief at the man's haggard appearance. "Even… Father…"
Those in the audience who could still form thoughts nearly lost their wits. "Just like that… the Patriarch of House Valerian, Collyer Valerian, suffered such a loss!?"
Elysia and Lisanna were left in a daze. They knew. They knew the siblings were powerful, but to see it play out with their own eyes—to see a legend like Collyer Valerian swatted from the sky so casually—was still profoundly, overwhelmingly shocking.
And all the while, Orion simply smiled, that same calm, placid expression on his face. He took slow, measured steps until he was shoulder-to-shoulder with his sister.
The two of them, standing together, created an imposingly serene presence. An aura of absolute, unassailable dominance radiated from them, causing Collyer Valerian to faintly clench his fist, feeling a pressure he had never once felt in his entire, storied life.
The Zenith Tech Conclave had become their stage, and they had only just begun their performance.