Ethereal Ascension
—
The world didn't notice it at first.
A stillness fell across the plaza, the kind that precedes a storm—dense, charged, waiting. Birds went quiet. Conversations slowed. Essence itself seemed to pause mid-flow.
Kael stood in the center of the square, fists clenched, eyes closed. The moment came not with thunder or flame, but with a silence so absolute it crushed thought.
Then it hit.
A pulse.
Not of raw power—but something deeper. Something primal. Like the world had just remembered a name it wasn't meant to speak aloud.
Essence warped around Kael, bending toward him as if desperate to obey. The air rippled, impossibly heavy, and then tore with a low, guttural hum as his Essence flared to life.
The flames of Origin had long since burned away.
What remained was something else entirely.
Ethereal.
That was the only word he could find. Not a title, not a classification—a truth. One whispered from some fragment of his soul, as though he'd known it once before.
His body pulsed with layered threads of Storm, Lightning, Flame, and Kinetic, but they were no longer separated. They moved in unity—interwoven like veins beneath glass, shimmering in and out of visibility.
Every breath he took cracked the ground beneath him. Every blink displaced the air with a low pop. He dared not move. He didn't even dare speak.
Kael stood motionless, completely still—because he understood instinctively: if he wasn't careful, clapping his hands could split the earth in half.
Not metaphorically. Literally.
—
Dozens had gathered nearby.
Leiya turned first, her smile fading slowly as the hum of Essence reached her. "Kael…?" she whispered.
Elandor's plaza filled with murmurs. Veteran adventurers, even Pyre and Radiant-tier elites, backed away. Some gripped their weapons without realizing it. Others simply froze, eyes wide.
"His Essence…"
"Is that even human?"
"It feels endless…"
"No—bottomless."
The whispers carried through the wind, but Kael didn't flinch. He couldn't. One mistake, even one casual motion, and the entire district might crumble.
Leiya stepped forward despite it all. Her expression was no longer lighthearted—it was filled with something deeper: awe, fear, love. She reached out gently.
"Kael?" she repeated.
His eyes opened.
And for a moment, she saw it—the weight of a cosmos burning behind them.
"…I'm fine," he said softly. The wind didn't carry his voice, but somehow everyone heard it. The plaza fell dead silent again.
Then he breathed in, slowly, deeply. And just like that, the storm collapsed back inside him.
The pressure lifted.
The air returned.
The world remembered how to breathe.
Kael lowered his hands and turned to Leiya with the faintest trace of a smile. "Just… a shift," he muttered.
Leiya tilted her head. "Shift?"
"I've crossed a threshold. One I never thought I'd reach. Not this soon."
Her gaze searched his, gentle and curious. "Is that a good thing?"
He hesitated. "…Ask me again later."
—
That night, the city whispered.
Rumors spread like wildfire through Elandor's taverns and guild halls.
"He's surpassed Origin. I felt it."
"No one's ever gone beyond that rank before…"
"They said Origin was the peak. That was a lie?"
"Is he even one of us anymore?"
Some feared him. Others revered him. But all agreed on one thing—Kael Fael was no longer bound by the same limits as the rest of them.
Not anymore.
And yet, amidst the swirl of legend being born anew, Kael stood alone at the edge of the Worldflame Spire, watching stars wheel slowly above. His heartbeat was calm. His mind wasn't.
The power within him seethed—beautiful, terrible, untamed. Ethereal. A word that didn't describe strength, but presence. Existence.
And it was just the beginning.
Far away, in a realm no map could chart, something vast stirred.
The Sovereign Varnok, its form still cloaked in a shifting void of screaming halos and eyes, turned slightly—its multitude of gazes flickering with interest.
"…He's awakened," it said. The words reverberated like iron dragged through stone.
Arkzen appeared beside it, arms crossed, the faintest tremor in his jaw. "Too fast," he muttered. "He's remembering too quickly."
The Sovereign turned one head toward him.
"Then perhaps," it rasped, "you've miscalculated."
Arkzen said nothing.
—
Back in Elandor, Kael stood still.
The stars above looked smaller than they used to. He could see farther now. Feel farther. The very structure of Essence across the continent vibrated within him.
He didn't say a word.
But in his heart, he knew.
This power wasn't a gift.
It was a warning.