The Abyssal Sector was no longer quiet.
Energy surged through the buried city like blood through open veins. Ancient towers hummed with forgotten power. Gravity currents twisted and collided above the ruins, dragging ash and crystal dust into slow, violent spirals.
Kali stood at the center of it.
The first candidate arrived less than a minute later.
A man in segmented black armor burst from the mist, his blade already glowing with compressed energy. His eyes widened when he saw Kali.
"So it's you," he muttered.
He attacked without hesitation.
Kali didn't move.
The man's blade tore through the space where Kali's head had been — except Kali was no longer there. He had stepped aside with such minimal movement that it barely disturbed the air. Kali's fist crashed into the attacker's ribs an instant later.
The impact folded the man's body around Kali's arm.
He hit the ground without a sound.
Kali felt it — the difference.
Before, every strike demanded effort, focus, sacrifice.
Now his body simply answered.
Another presence surged from the left.
Then another from behind.
Three candidates emerged from the fog, their auras flaring in open hostility.
"Take him together!" one shouted.
They rushed him.
Kali inhaled once.
His core rotated.
The world slowed.
He stepped forward and drove his fist into the ground.
The shockwave ripped outward in a perfect ring, shattering stone, throwing the three attackers off their feet like broken dolls. Kali moved through them before they could recover.
One strike.
Two.
Three.
Silence returned.
The ruins trembled.
From every direction, energy signatures multiplied. More candidates were arriving, drawn by the resonance of the relic and the pressure of Kali's awakening.
Above the battlefield, a Federation observation satellite adjusted its orbit.
Inside its control chamber, streams of data flooded the display.
"His output just spiked again."
"Core stability is holding."
"Combat efficiency increased by forty-three percent."
A senior officer leaned closer to the screen.
"Mark this zone as Priority Engagement Area."
Back in the Abyss, Kali stood among the fallen, chest steady, eyes calm.
The convergence had begun.
And Kali was standing at its center.