A slow clap echoed from the observation deck.
Kelvin looked up, sweat mingling with soot on his brow. His breath came in shallow pulls, his muscles were burning with the aftermath of his overdrawn resonance.
Xerion stood beside him with steam rising from his obsidian-black scales, his wings were tucked and he narrowed his eyes toward the clapping figure above.
From the deck, a tall figure stepped forward- elegant, armored in gold-trimmed black, and smiling with a dangerous sort of grace.
"Impressive," the man said, his voice was like a steel dipped in honey. "I see the rumors were not just an exaggeration."
Kelvin rose to his feet with wariness flaring in his chest. "Who are you?"
The man placed a hand over his heart in a mock salute. "Elias Kael. Grand Tamer of the Dominion Sanctum. I've been dispatched to observe... anomalies. Especially yours, in particular."
Instructor Nalia appeared beside Elias with a tight expression. "You weren't expected until the Equinox Trials."
"And yet," Elias said, eyeing Kelvin with something between admiration and predatory interest, "here I am."
Kelvin's instincts reveled. There was something off about Elias, too smooth, too calculated. Even Xerion shifted slightly, flames flickering low around his claws.
"I have heard of you," Kelvin said. "You tamed the Storm Leviathan at sixteen. Commanded a triple-tier convergence against the Abyssal Bloom."
Elias smiled. "Briliant."
Xerion's voice rumbled inside Kelvin's mind. This one reeks of chained power. He bends beasts, not bonds with them.
"I came to see if the boy with the dragon could live up to the myth," Elias said, descending the stairs. "But more than that, I came to offer you something."
Kelvin raised an eyebrow. "Offer?"
"The Dominion is assembling a new task force; Elite Tamers are meant to counter Rift incursions before they even surface. Your Soul Convergence puts you in rare company, Kelvin.
You will have command, resources, and protection far beyond what the Sanctum provides."
Kelvin narrowed his eyes. "Or I become your weapon."
Elias did not shiver. "The world doesn't need boys wielding ancient monsters without guidance. Think carefully. The next Rift won't be a lieutenant, it will be a general."
Kelvin looked to Xerion. Their bond pulsed, not in words, but through layered instincts. We are not tools.
"I appreciate the visit," Kelvin said. "But I choose my path and I can't go with the one dictated by fear."
Elias tilted his head with an amusement smile. "We will see how long that idealism will last."
Without another word, he turned and vanished through the tower stairway, leaving behind a silence that is thicker than flame smoke.
********************************
The evening light shined silver through the trees as Kelvin sat near the reflecting pool, his legs were folded beneath him, palms resting at the top his knees.
The meditation stones hummed faintly with residual energy, drawing wisps of mana from the earth into the still air.
He was trying, struggling to recreate the feeling from the Soul Convergence. That depth, that emerges with clarity.
But it wouldn't come.
Not here. Not without stakes. Not without fire.
"You are thinking too loudly," someone said from behind him.
Kelvin opened his eyes and he saw Lyra approaching with her hair pulled back in a simple braid and her eyes reflecting the moonlight like twin lanterns.
He smiled, though it faltered at the edges. "I didn't know that I was being that obvious."
"You are always," she said, lowering herself to sit beside him. "You always wear your storms like a second robe."
Kelvin chuckled. "Then I should learn to lie better."
"Or stop lying to yourself." Her voice was gentle, but not soft. "About what you are becoming."
He looked at her. "And what is that, exactly?"
Lyra met his gaze. "Someone afraid he has already lost his humanity."
The words hit like a slap.
Kelvin turned away with his jaw tightened. "You saw what I did and what I became. It was not just fusion. It was something… darker."
"It was power," she said, leaning closer. "It didn't consume you but it obeyed you."
He exhaled, long and slow. "But for how long?"
Her hand interlocked against Kelvin's hand and this time it was more deliberate. "As long as someone is here to remind you of who you are and I will be here to remind you." Lyra said.
Their fingers interlaced. A simple gesture. But in that moment, something shifted.
Not the world, not the stars.
But Kelvin.
**********************
The sparring circle had been reinforced. Not with basic enchantments, but with layered warding rings, mana stabilizers, and high-tier containment glyphs. What Kelvin was attempting wasn't practice.
It was a controlled awakening.
Nalia stood at the edge with her arms folded, flanked by two recovery priests and a medic with a full ether-siphon kit.
"Ready?" she asked.
Kelvin nodded. "No but that never stopped me before."
Xerion roared, the sound shaking frost from nearby trees. We begin.
They moved in unison. First the ripple of the bond, then the flow of flame, and finally the convergence.
But this time, Kelvin didn't let it overwhelm him, he didn't surrender rather...
He guided.
A light burst from the ground in a spiral of molten blue and crimson. His form expanded with his limbs cloaked in armor that shimmered like dragon-scale, eyes burning with a hue that shifted with his breath.
Half-beast. Half-man and full control.
This was no accident rather it was mastery.
They danced between targets, Kelvin was moving like a blur of fire and ash. Every motion was echoed with precision.
He struck, rolled, conjured flame-whips, diverted energy blasts and when he screamed, it was a battle cry that shattered three stone pylons.
When it ended, the ground around him was scorched black, runes crackling with overloaded feedback.
Nalia whispered to herself, "He is stabilizing it... already."
Deep beneath the Sanctum which is hidden from many, there was a wing only Grand Instructors could access. It contained prophecy tomes, sealed contracts from pre-Rift eras, and the Writ of Serik.
Kelvin stood before it.
A parchment written in blood and soul essence. A recount of the first Soul Convergence and the burden it brought.
"You are not like the others," said an ancient voice.
Kelvin turned to find the oldest Master alive, a man known simply as Aelin, blind but radiant with aura. "You are his echo. Or his heir."
Kelvin didn't respond.
Aelin stepped forward, placing a bony hand on his shoulder. "The Rifts are changing. They adapt. What you did… what you are… is a harbinger."
Kelvin swallowed. "Am I a danger to them… or to us?" Aelin smiled faintly. "That will depend on who wins. You, or the fire inside you."