Kelvin clinched his teeth. "I don't know if I can hold it..."
Then let me hold you. There was no time to hesitate.
He opened the door within his soul and the fire consumed him.
It was not a flame in the ordinary sense, not heat, not a searing pain, it was just a devouring radiance that is ancient and immersed.
Kelvin's senses collapsed inward, then expanded it all at once. His body dissolved into something both ethereal and monstrous, in the likelihood to the beast inside him.
Xerion surged forward, not merely beside him, but through him this time.
The battlefield halted.
Even the Rift beast's paused with a primal instinct warning them of a predator far beyond their comprehension.
Kelvin took a single step, and the corrupted soil beneath his feet shattered in a ring of glowing sigils.
"Xerion echoed. Let's end this." And at this point they moved as one.
The first Rift beast lunged, spitting a column of violet mist, but Kelvin went out of sight but in a thunderclap of displaced air, he reappeared above the beast with his arm drawn back and claws igniting with blood-red light. Immediately he struck the beast.
The impact of his attack splinted the beast's spine with a sickening crunch and black ichor came spurting into the sky like ink from a ruptured well.
The creature let out a psychic shriek before collapsing, twitching, and fading into corrupted mist.
Another beast came from the side but it was too slow. Kelvin did not dodge this time but instead he caught the monster's jaw with his both hands, muscles bulging with Xerion's force, and ripped the beast off.
He turned as he was already mid-leap he hurled the severed jaw into the final beast's face with an explosive velocity.
As the beast staggered, he dove like a firework, driving his elbow into its chest hard enough to crack the ground and shatter the beast's ribcage.
A pulse of dark energy erupted from its wound but Kelvin merely snarled and absorbed it, his fusion form drinking in the Rift's unstable mana like a starved firestorm.
Then, with one final, blinding howl, he unleashed all that power in a draconic breath that swallowed the battlefield in crimson hellfire.
When the light faded, there was silence.
No more beasts. No more fights it was just smoking ruin and the faint crackle of spent magic.
Kael stood at the ridge with his coat flapping in the aftermath wind, his face was unreadable.
The other Tamers were speechless. Some looked at Kelvin with awe, others with thinly veiled fear.
He collapsed to one knee as the fusion broke. Xerion's form unraveled, fading into ember and shadow until only his golden eyes remained, hovering beside Kelvin's shoulder like a fading star.
Kelvin gasped for air. His skin was scorched, his veins still glowing faintly with draconic energy. But he was alive.
We did it, he thought to himself.
No, Xerion corrected gently. You did.
Kael approached, slow and silent.
"You disobeyed regulation," the instructor said coolly. "Fusion above Level Three is forbidden outside of Sanctum-sanctioned duels."
Kelvin raised his head with his teeth gritted and asked Instructor Kael. "Would you rather prefer we were dead?"
Kael's expression didn't change.
"I would rather," he said, "you learned to wield that power without becoming the very monster that we train to destroy."
Before Kelvin could reply, Kael turned away and raised a crystal.
"Mission complete. He initiated retrieval and commanded that Rift-seal procedures begin immediately."
Then he looked back with his eyes like flint. "Get him on his feet. When he wakes, he is mine."
Three Days Later
Kelvin woke to the beeping of runic monitors and the gentle humming of recovery wards. His muscles ached as if he had fought the world itself. He blinked slowly, the ceiling was blurry and too white.
Then he felt a hand in his hand. Warm and familiar.
He turned.
Lyra sat beside him, worry was etched into every line of her face.
"You idiot," she whispered, tears brimming. "You really were going to die out there."
He tried to speak, but all that came was a hoarse he later let out a broken laugh.
"I told you that I will come back."
She kissed his hands and did not let go immediately.
For a long while, they both sat there with their hands interlocked with each other.
Then the door opened.
Kael entered, followed by two other instructors.
"Kelvin," he said. "You are being transferred."
Kelvin tried to sit up. "What?"
Kael moved forward, placing a sealed envelope on the bedside table. "You have been formally reassigned to the Obsidian Division. Effective immediately."
Lyra's breath caught. "That is ... the internal corps."
"The Obsidian Division," Kael continued, "It trains the only tamers allowed to cross into Deep Rifts. You have proven that you can survive what is to come. Now you will learn to master it."
Kelvin opened the envelope with trembling fingers.
Inside was a black badge marked with a single sigil: a dragon coiled around a star.
"You have earned the Sanctum's attention, Kelvin," Kael said. "Now earn its trust."
******The Obsidian Division *****
The facility was buried beneath the earth with no windows, no sunlight, only the faint glow of ever-burning runes etched into black stone walls.
It was a place where rules bent, where tamers either evolved into something unrecognizable or vanished altogether.
Kelvin stood in a wide chamber, facing a ring of armored instructors. In the center was a massive steel platform—a trial zone.
One of the instructors, a woman named Veyra with silver tattoos crawling across her neck, gestured to the far side.
"Your opponent is waiting."
The gates groaned open.
From the shadows emerged a beast that wasn't bound. It didn't wear a collar, it did not heed to a tamer's command. It was wild. Sentient.
A Riftborn predator captured from beyond the known world.
"Defeat it," Veyra said. "But do not kill it."
Kelvin cracked his neck.
Xerion's form emerged at his back, eyes narrowed. Ready, partner?
"Always." Xerion responded.
The beast roared and charged.
Kelvin met it head-on with cloak flaring behind him like wings of flame.
****Hours Later –Dormitory Block 7A***
Kelvin collapsed into his cot and was covered in bruises and bite marks. His hands were swollen, and his jaw ached him from where the beast had clocked him with its tail.
Still, he grinned.
He hadn't just survived but he had learned something new.
The fusion had evolved again but not in power but in control and in clarity.
He could feel Xerion more vividly now and sense even the faintest threads of the dragon's instincts.
We're no longer two things sharing space, Kelvin thought. We're starting to become one.
A chime sounded. He opened the door and looked at the doorway.
Lyra stood there, holding two cups of steamroot tea.
"Thought you would want company."
He smiled and said. "Always."
She came in and sat beside him and handed him a cup. "They are calling you the Riftborn Flame now. Words are spreading fast about you."
"I didn't choose that name." He said.
"No," she said softly. "But you have earned the name through your hard work."
He closed his eyes for a moment, letting the peace that he is experiencing to settle. He knew it wouldn't last. Another battle always waited beyond the veil. But for tonight, he allowed himself the luxury of stillness.