Ashveil did not burn.
It waited.
The rift above the city widened slowly, like an eye opening from beyond the universe. It was no longer violent. No thunder. No screaming distortion.
Controlled.
Intentional.
Auren stood at the center of devastation, Spirit Ignition still flickering through his veins. His body ached, but not from weakness.
From growth.
Every second, the System was integrating the ×9,873 amplification into his cells.
But something felt wrong.
Too quiet.
The Abyssal scouts had not attacked again.
They were positioned across rooftops and broken highways—still.
Watching.
Awaiting command.
Then—
The rift stabilized.
And something stepped through.
It wasn't massive.
It wasn't monstrous.
It was humanoid.
Tall. Cloaked in shifting void silk. Skin like polished obsidian etched with faint moving runes. Eyes glowing with violet entropy.
No wings.
No brute display.
Just presence.
And the scouts lowered themselves.
Submission.
[Abyssal Dominion – War Envoy Identified]
[Estimated Rank: Spirit Ignition 7 – Law Awareness Threshold]
[Threat Level: Severe]
The Envoy looked directly at Auren.
Then smiled.
"You are earlier than expected."
Auren's heartbeat slowed.
"Expected by who?"
The Envoy ignored the question.
"You are not catalogued in Dominion projections. Yet you adapt at accelerated rates. You ignite spirit beyond baseline probability."
It stepped forward.
"And you summoned."
Auren felt something tighten in his chest.
The hollow gate inside him pulsed again.
The Envoy's gaze sharpened.
"You are not a natural evolution."
There it was.
Confirmation.
The System remained silent.
Of course it did.
Suddenly—
The sky rippled again.
But not from the rift.
From higher.
Far beyond atmosphere.
A streak of silver light pierced downward like a falling star and halted mid-air above Ashveil.
The Abyssal Envoy looked up.
Annoyed.
The silver light condensed.
Revealing a figure clad in crystalline armor, radiant and precise. Not chaotic like the Dominion.
Structured.
Lawful.
Wings formed of geometric light constructs unfolded behind them.
[Unknown Entity Identified]
[Faction Tag: Celestial Concord – Observer Unit]
Auren's breath caught.
Two factions.
Watching him.
The Celestial figure spoke calmly.
"Abyssal Dominion. This realm falls under Concord stabilization."
The Envoy's smile widened.
"This realm was marked inefficient."
Auren's stomach turned.
Inefficient.
The same word from the day the multiverse collapsed.
The Celestial Observer turned its gaze toward Auren.
"You are the anomaly."
No hostility.
No kindness.
Assessment.
Auren straightened.
"And you're all treating my world like a laboratory."
Silence.
The Envoy chuckled softly.
"Laboratory is inaccurate."
"It is a proving ground."
The words landed heavy.
The Celestial Observer's wings pulsed faintly.
"This candidate exceeds early thresholds."
Candidate.
Auren's blood ran cold.
Not anomaly.
Not survivor.
Candidate.
There were others.
The System flickered violently.
[Information Access Attempt Detected]
[Lock Reinforced]
[Warning: Observer Attention Escalating]
Both factions paused simultaneously.
They felt it.
The System's presence.
The Envoy's smile vanished.
"Ah."
The Celestial Observer's voice sharpened.
"It has chosen."
Chosen.
Auren clenched his fists.
The hollow gate inside him burned brighter.
He wasn't just being tested by Abyssal Dominion.
Or Celestial Concord.
He was being evaluated by something above them both.
And they knew it.
The Envoy stepped closer, void energy swirling around him.
"If you survive beyond Spirit Ignition, you will destabilize projection matrices."
The Celestial figure added:
"If you fail, this realm will be archived and reset."
Reset.
Like before.
Like the collapse.
Rage flickered inside Auren.
Not wild.
Focused.
"You don't get to decide that."
The Envoy tilted his head.
"We already have."
The sky darkened further.
More rifts.
But not Abyssal.
Not Celestial.
Something else.
Far older.
A pressure descended that made both factions tense.
Even the Envoy stepped back slightly.
[Warning: Third-Party Interference Detected]
[Classification: Observer Echo]
The air split.
And a silhouette appeared.
Not detailed.
Not defined.
A humanoid outline made of fractured timelines.
Its voice was layered, overlapping with itself.
"Candidate… progressing within acceptable variance."
The Celestial Observer bowed slightly.
The Abyssal Envoy did not.
But neither attacked.
The Echo looked at Auren.
Not with curiosity.
With familiarity.
"You are not the first."
Auren's chest tightened.
"How many failed?"
The Echo did not answer.
Instead:
"Escalation permitted."
The sky shattered.
The Abyssal Envoy's eyes gleamed.
The Celestial Observer's wings expanded.
Both factions retreated upward simultaneously.
Not fleeing.
Repositioning.
The battlefield shifted.
This was no longer about Ashveil.
This was a controlled escalation.
The scouts below began merging.
Dozens of Abyssal units fused into a single towering war construct, its body layered in hardened void crystal.
The Celestial Observer raised one hand, projecting a barrier that contained the battlefield.
Auren stood at the center.
Spirit Ignition blazing.
Summoner gate humming.
Singularity pulsing violently.
The Echo's final words echoed inside him.
"Survive this stage."
Then it vanished.
The war construct roared.
Auren smiled faintly.
"Good."
Because now—
He understood.
He wasn't fighting monsters.
He wasn't defending a city.
He was climbing a ladder built from extinction.
And every rung was war.