Where mourning meets mystery, and truth hides behind reverence...
---
[Scene: The Grand Funeral – Mount Halion, Summit of Spirits]
The skies wept soft starlight.
Even the moons of Airious dimmed.
Every realm responded.
From the floating gardens of Soul Haven,
to the living vines of Terra,
even the time-frozen sands of Verion cracked to make way.
For Traxis…
The protector who dared defy both villainy and order.
---
Each realm sent envoys, elders, even creatures that once bowed to no one.
Not out of duty… but respect.
The ceremony pulsed with solemn Avian Light.
Each mourner bowed with one hand over the heart and the other toward the stars.
Maraxis, silent, more statue than man.
Elegia, veiled in white, not mourning—remembering.
Klexis, confused. His small eyes searching. He didn't understand death.
Only absence.
Kainen, knelt.
The weight of command and betrayal both etched in the creases of his brow.
And Elexis…
Eyes cold. Mind sharper than guilt could dull.
He watched the sky.
Watched the place where Traxis fell.
> "Something's wrong."
He leaned to Kainen.
> "Did you feel it?"
Kainen raised an eyebrow, barely audible.
> "What?"
> "His Avia was gone. I know that light. I've seen it in myself. That wasn't Avia that powered him in the end…"
Kainen's face paled.
> "He abandoned it...?"
> "Or it abandoned him," Elexis muttered.
"And that means one thing."
Kainen's voice cracked in disbelief:
> "He's… corrupted? But he—he died."
Elexis stepped forward, watched the celestial winds where Traxis had burst into light.
> "I don't know. Maybe he died...
Or maybe the Ghoul he met in the Void Sphere didn't need his body—only his spirit."
---
[Scene: Unknown Realm | Somewhere Beyond the Sun's Ashes]
There is no light here.
No gravity. No time. Only intention.
And within it, a silhouette—burning, barely holding form.
It hovers.
Rage still stirs in its center…
but now it pulses with something else. A new rhythm. Not Avian. Not Corruption.
Something older.
Bhine speaks from the void's edge:
> "See? They mourn you, yet fear you.
You died a savior… but they'll call you a threat before long."
The silhouette doesn't answer.
Instead… it begins walking.
Not toward Bhine.
But deeper.
Somewhere the light cannot follow.
---
[Scene: Back in Airious]
The white flame in the funeral's pyre flickers violently.
Elegia shivers.
Klexis stares upward again… and whispers:
> "Papa...?"
[Scene: Council Chamber of Equinox – Airious]
The chamber echoed with tension—an invisible storm brewing in the silence.
Kainen stood at the center, fists clenched, his robe slightly torn from battle, eyes burning not with rage... but conviction.
The Council of Order sat in their jeweled thrones—Tenor, sharp and snide; Gogia, older and more withered than wise; and Maraxis, whose silence was deeper than denial.
Kainen's voice cracked the air like thunder through still water.
> "You speak of protocol, but Avia was never built to be a cage!"
> "It's truth. It's resonance. It's raw, uncut authenticity!"
The room tensed.
> "Traxis acted from that truth. You called it 'unauthorized.' Since when did Avia need your permission to be real?"
Maraxis narrowed his eyes.
> "You know what he became..."
Kainen stepped forward, tone fierce:
> "I know he tried to save innocents. I know he went too far.
But I also know it wasn't the ghouls that pushed him—it was us.
We made him doubt the very gift we told him to trust."
Gasps rippled.
> "If Avia is real only when it fits your rulebook... then it was never real to you in the first place."
And then—
BOOM.
A rumble deeper than sound.
A pulse that forced even prideful lungs to exhale.
The light cracked open.
And from it...
King Centron.
Cloaked in stellar blue, crown of molten glass hovering above his head like a halo that dared not touch.
The council stood. Then bowed. Instinctively. As if gravity itself insisted.
Even Kainen dropped to one knee—but Centron raised his hand.
> "Stand, Kainen. You spoke from truth. That is never shameful."
He walked forward. His voice gentle but final.
> "I have been gone too long."
> "In that absence, we've mistaken order for control… and control for virtue."
He turned to the council, not in anger—but in heavy disappointment.
> "Avia is not strict. Avia is not law. Avia is not yours."
He walked in a slow circle, addressing every Airien watching, even those beyond the chamber via vision crystals.
> "The cosmos respect us, not because we are powerful… but because we are honest."
> "Lose that honesty, and even the stars will turn their backs."
Silence.
Then—Centron raised both hands.
A shimmer—no, a presence—answered.
The Creation Stone.
Hovering, breathing, glowing like the heart of existence itself.
It pulsed not with power, but with permission.
> "This is the Mediator of Avia. The breath behind every truth, every soul, every spark of self."
> "From this moment, the Council will no longer authorize Avia."
> "It will protect it."
The stone pulsed again.
> "To prevent instability—not restrict freedom—we will adopt the Avian Compression."
Murmurs broke out. Eyes widened.
> "Every Airien, regardless of title or legacy, will carry a compression seal. Power will be reduced to manageable levels—not out of fear, but discipline."
> "Compression is not weakness... it is understanding."
> "It's the art of choosing when to strike… and when to simply stand in truth."
Centron turned to the crowd.
> "This is no longer a doctrine.
This is a return."
A pause. His gaze softened.
> "To Traxis… we owe a debt.
His fall was a warning.
His sacrifice—a reminder.
And his pain… a prophecy."
> "Let this be the day Avia is not enforced, but embraced."
---
[Scene Ends]
The Creation Stone trembles slightly—no longer just a tool of balance... but a beacon of change.
And somewhere, in the deepest fold of existence…
A ripple is felt.
Traxis, wherever he is, smiles faintly.
Present day
Setting: A floating glade in Airious, reality folded to allow peace and learning. Jack and the others sit cross-legged, fresh from mastering the Hollow Step. Kainen stands before them, quiet as the wind, burdened as the sea.
---
🧙♂️ Kainen (Softly):
> "Before you move forward... you need to understand why we fall."
A pause. He looks up—eyes brimming with memory, not regret.
---
🧙♂️ Kainen:
> "Traxis. One of my brightest students. Brave, visionary... reckless.
He died not because of power… but because the Council feared the truth he carried."
---
The air stills. Even Jack lowers his glowing eyes. Klexis, standing at the edge, clenches his fist silently.
---
🧙♂️ Kainen (cont'd):
> "He burned too brightly. People called him unstable. But Avia never abandoned him.
It was us... we failed him. So the Creation Stone gave us a path. A balance."
---
💠 Kennedy (curious):
> "Avian Compression…?"
---
🧙♂️ Kainen (nods):
> "Yes. A gift born from guilt. A technique to match power with purpose.
So that truth wouldn't always come at the cost of a body."
---
🌀 Ian (arms crossed):
> "So what, we limit ourselves forever?"
---
🧙♂️ Kainen (stern now):
> "No. You don't limit yourselves for others.
You master yourself so you don't become a danger to what you're trying to protect.
Learn when to unleash. Learn when to hold."
---
⚡ Henry (smirks):
> "So don't go full Traxis mode unless we want to explode the moon, got it."
---
👁️ Jack (serious):
> "...But never lie to your truth either. Right?"
---
*Kainen smiles faintly. That rare, old-soul smile, the kind that means you've finally understood something bigger than power.
---
🧙♂️ Kainen:
> "Exactly."
---
✨ Yyvone (gentle):
> "We honor Traxis… by living what he died for."
---
🎭 Enter: The Chaotic Knights of Humor
Later that day...
As they begin training Hollow Step landings, the sky warps open—and with a screeching sonic laugh, in flies:
Aprexion, the Ruth Bomb himself. Arrow Affinity. Bombastic attitude.
Ractor, with Speed Affinity, already speaking in fast-forward.
Con, with Reality Affinity and a dangerously chill vibe.
And Hela —a charming chaos mother with Insect Affinity, dangerous and stylish.
---
🏹 Aprexion (posing dramatically):
> "Congratulations, little hoppers! You've stepped into the void...
but can you land in the bathroom without phasing into the toilet?"
---
🐞 Hela (laughs, wings buzzing):
> "They look exhausted. Poor babies. Want a snack? Or a death duel?"
---
🌀 Charles (to Sonia, whispering):
> "I thought we were done..."
---
🎸 Con (strumming a cosmic guitar):
> "You're never done. You're just on the next level of unfinished."
---
🧠 Osei (dryly):
> "Why do they all sound like meme pages?"
---
⚡ Henry (grinning):
> "I love them already."
---
Cue training montage: Avian misfires, void slips, landing explosions, Hela cheering wildly from a recliner made of bugs. And through it all, laughter returns to Jack's crew—not to distract from the pain, but to remind them...
> 🗝️ "You're still allowed to smile, even if the world's on fire."
The Patternalized Zone – "Hollowport or Fall"
Setting: The Cosmic Gym is no more. It has evolved... fractured into a lattice of interdimensional anchor points, each one flickering in and out of reality like a heartbeat under duress. The students call it:
> "The Patternalized Zone."
---
🎙️ Kainen (from a high platform, robes fluttering):
> "In here, the only rule is rhythm.
You don't walk to the truth...
you hollow-step to it—before the pattern forgets you exist."
---
The students are already mid-air, phasing, reappearing wrong, falling, crashing, groaning. This isn't just teleportation—it's dance mixed with strategy, wrapped in a chaotic riddle.
There are dozens of "Rephase Points", flickering like glitchy constellations. They shift and vanish unless predicted, traced, and respected.
---
💥 CHARACTER MOMENTS
⚡ Jack (Struggling)
He hollowed four times in one breath—nothing. Every re-entry was a fraction off.
His frustration burned, but so did his pride.
> "I'm not using the analysis eyes. Not yet."
He grit his teeth. Another miss. Another. Still—he didn't quit.
---
🧠 Osei (Focused)
Instinct manipulation turned him into a human radar.
> "Pause. Trace. It'll flash three times before it freezes. Follow the beat, not the point."
He reappeared mid-air, spun, then landed on the platform as it solidified beneath his foot.
> "Got it."
Jack's jaw tightened. Osei made it look effortless.
---
🎭 Sonia (Simmering)
Her emotional spectrum flickered wildly. Her eyes glowed a deep violet, near black.
Each miss wasn't just a fail—it was a reminder.
> "I'm tired of being second-best."
She roared mid-air, released a raw blast of emotion—the Rephase Points pulsed back, reacting.
> "...Did I just shift the pattern?"
Yes, she did.
---
🌀 Kennedy (The Cheater Genius)
Grinned, snapping his fingers. A neat little framework ring floated around a point.
> "If I can't land in time, I'll make time land for me."
Kainen's voice thundered:
> "DISQUALIFIED."
> Kennedy: "…what? It's still creative."
---
🧾 Charles (Mr. Rune Logic)
Wrote a rune midair:
> "ᚱᛟᚨᛇᚨᛚᛚ"
"Roayaall" — the Rune of Precision.
He sliced it into the pattern with his finger, landing like a needle into thread.
Kainen's eyes widened slightly. That was...advanced.
---
⚡ Henry (Clueless Swagger)
He was bouncing around like a human lightning bolt.
> "Where we landing, gang? Anyone got a map?"
He zipped toward a point, missed, looped again, missed harder, and crashed into the floor—
> "Okay! Okay! We're improvising!"
Yet, something sparked: his natural rhythm. Without knowing, he was mapping the heartbeat of the zone by existing recklessly within it.
> Jack (watching): "He doesn't even realize...he's learning."
---
✂️ Ian (The Calm Blade)
He sliced through space itself—not violently, but gracefully. His Slash Affinity let him bend space a bit, enough to cheat reality just a hair.
> "Each point is a beat. I'll cut through the silence between them."
He landed hard but clean. Blood trickled. Worth it.
---
🔄 ROUND TWO: Rising Intensity
As the students adapt, the pattern shifts faster. Now phantom points appear—false landings, temptations, traps.
Klexis (now watching, arms crossed, corrupted still... but observant) mutters:
> "They're too clean. Let's see how they bleed."
And somewhere, a ghoul's laugh echoes faintly through the zone.
---
🎙️ KAINEN'S FINAL WORDS (As They Collapse from Training)
> "The Hollow Step was to lose the weight.
The Landing... is to carry it again.
You don't just arrive—you must know why you deserve to."
---
Jack lies on his back, breath shallow, sweat glowing like mist.
He didn't land even once. But he smiles faintly.
> "One more round."
The Hollow Reckoning – "Roast Protocols Engaged"
Setting: The training field shatters open like a flower blooming from fear.
What enters? Not instructors. Not friends. But Combat Bots—designed by Aprexion's mad, caffeinated sense of humor and a council of philosophers with no chill.
These are no ordinary bots.
These are:
> "R.O.A.S.T Units – Relational Opposition Assault & Strategy Testers"
Not only do they fight—you guessed it—they roast.
---
🎙️ ROBOT 001: "Error detected: Your form is trash. Upload better skill or uninstall yourself, Jack."
ROBOT 217: "Sonia, emotional instability detected—would you like a tissue or an ego?"
The squad winced.
Jack blinked.
Even Kennedy muttered, "Damn... they didn't have to go for the jugular like that."
---
⚔️ RULES OF THE TRIAL:
No Affinities.
No Runes.
No Instinct Manipulation.
No Analysis Eyes. (Sorry Jack)
No Frameworks. (Kennedy groaned audibly.)
Only Hollow Step and Landing. Raw movement.
Purpose over power.
---
🧍♀️ Yyvone (Wobbling, bleeding)
She tried to use healing threads, but the bot just waved a disapproving finger.
> Robot 315: "This ain't the hospital. Move like you mean it."
She staggered back, but then—phased unexpectedly.
> "Did I just...hollow by instinct?"
Yes. Yes she did.
---
🤕 Jack (Mid-slam, flat on the floor)
A 4D robot literally punched him into a non-Euclidean geometry.
He screamed in three languages and briefly existed as a Möbius strip.
> "I'm gonna throw up... in fourth-person perspective…"
Then: silence. Breath.
A voice echoed in his head—not from outside, but inside.
> "Let go. Let go of being special. Let go of trying to impress.
Land for yourself. Move like breath. Step like thought."
He blinked.
Then vanished.
---
👻 The Turning Point: Phasing Through Pain
They stopped trying to control it.
They started to feel it.
The Hollow Step wasn't a flex—it was surrender.
A moment where intent became light,
and light became direction.
---
One by one:
Sonia, no longer burning purple, but floating in calm violet mist—reappeared behind a bot and vanished before it reacted.
Charles, gritting his teeth, hollowed through a laser grid, counting beats with his breath.
Ian, precise as a poet with a blade, dodged seven strikes by phasing at just the edge of each punch. He didn't need his sword. His body became the art.
Henry... flailed, hollered, spun... and somehow accidentally landed a perfect hollow step between two bots and smacked one upside the head.
> "Hah! Totally planned!"
> Jack: "You're chaos incarnate."
---
💡 Kennedy (Eyes Glowing White)
He vanished.
Then reappeared behind a bot that was already reacting to a future he hadn't lived yet.
> Kennedy: "Guys... I think I saw beyond 4D."
> Jack: "You what?"
> Kennedy: "I... might've accidentally peeked into the Pattern of Patterns."
> Kainen (watching through a scrying orb): "...We'll talk about that later."
---
⚔️ FINAL MOMENTS:
Surrounded by bots, outnumbered and bruised, they didn't use powers.
They used timing, trust, and a synchronized Hollow Step.
They vanished...
Reappeared in formation.
Phased through the bots' strikes...
And whispered behind them:
> "Land with reason."
BOOM.
Bots staggered, disoriented.
Team drops them like thunder.
---
🤖 Robot 217 (sparking):
> "Emotion...control...hollow...respect...formatting soul…rebooting self-worth…"
---
✨ EPILOGUE:
The field quieted. Kainen approached them slowly, arms behind his back.
> Kainen:
"That... was Hollow Mastery.
You let go of control, to gain it.
You moved without ego.
And you landed in your own story."
> "Traxis... would've smiled."
Jack swallowed hard.
---
☀️ As they rested:
> Sonia: "...I didn't need to prove I was powerful. I just needed to be present."
> Charles: "I wrote no runes, and I still arrived."
> Kennedy: "So can we use powers again now? My framework fingers are itching."
> Yyvone (giggling): "Only if you hollow to the snack table first."
ADEPT ASCENSION – "Echoes Beyond Time"
The moment was quiet...
Too quiet.
Until the knights began smirking.
Jack blinked. Sonia stood still. Charles clutched his head. Yyvone's threads curled like antennae picking up cosmic Wi-Fi.
> They had gone... 4D.
Not metaphorically. Literally.
They could see behind themselves without turning, feel the shadow of their future selves judging their past choices, and hear their laughter in tomorrow's echoes.
---
> "What... the HELL is going on?"
— Henry, honest as ever, stumbling into a duplicate of his own memory.
---
🌪️ A Portal Ripped Open
HYRAG stepped through first.
Clad in an armor made of concepts, ideas orbiting his skull like moons made of metaphors.
> "I am Hyrag, the Airienpedia."
"I remember the day knowledge became my heartbeat."
He didn't walk—he footnoted his way in.
Each step a reference to a forgotten truth.
---
Then came the thunder in robes—
🐐 AMINATOR.
The First Champion.
The man who stared into chaos and told it: "Make sense."
> "I created these,"
He said, pointing to the cosmic tattoos floating around his limbs like seals of mastery:
Infinite Awareness
Imminent Adaptation
Simultaneous Entanglement
Unbreakable
Probability Shift
> "Not to gain power... but to survive my truth."
"And now... you must learn your dimensional burden."
---
🌀 THE REVELATION OF DIMENSIONALITY
Aminator raised his hand, and the skies folded like pages.
> "Each Tier of Avia isn't just a skill level.
It's a dimensional key.
You've reached Adept... and now, your bondage to the Third Dimension has cracked."
The squad staggered.
Jack saw a version of himself that never shrunk, smiling with pride.
Sonia cried as she saw her corrupted self, trapped in a mirror of what-could-have-been.
Osei? He stared into ten past lives, all of whom masked emotion like him...and one, finally, who didn't.
Kennedy tried to rationalize it... until he saw a framework of his future regrets and his fingers trembled.
> "This is not a hallucination," said Hyrag. "This is dimensional perception. You are Adepts now. You see too much, too fast. And you must learn to exist within it."
---
⏳ The Glimpse Broke Them
They screamed without making noise.
Cried without tears.
Moved without limbs.
> They were seeing cause, effect, and memory braided like one long thread. The universe was no longer forward and back—it was everywhere.
---
🔥 But Then... the Return.
They collapsed onto the floor of the Cosmic Gym 2.0.
Breathing.
Real.
Together.
---
> Ian: "I saw my father... apologizing. A version of him who understood me."
> Yyvone: "I saw the day I stopped being angry at the world... and it broke me."
> Charles: "I... met myself as a villain. And he smiled at me."
> Henry: "Okay... not gonna lie... I saw myself making out with a robot. What the hell was that?"
> Kennedy: "You glitched into a rogue timeline. That wasn't...supposed to be viewed yet."
---
💬 Aminator (smiling gently):
> "Now you understand...
That this isn't about power.
It's about truth.
And truth... is dimensional."
> "To walk as an Airien is to wear your soul without flinching.
To look time in the eye and say,
'I will grow anyway.'"
---
💡 FINAL BEAT
The squad sat in silence, watching the world with new eyes.
Not bigger.
Just... wider.
Understanding that being Adept wasn't an upgrade—it was a responsibility.
The truth doesn't set you free, it asks you who you are without it.
---
"Above the Veil, Beneath the Myth"
The students sat in a quiet hush.
Still trembling from the chaos of their first 4D awakening.
Still wondering—
> "How powerful are you really?"
Their eyes said it before their mouths did.
Jack asked it quietly. Kennedy echoed it louder.
Henry pretended not to care but leaned in closer than anyone.
And the Knights…
They smiled. But not the prideful smile of gods.
No.
The smile of survivors who remember what it means to fall.
---
⚔️ KAINEN — The Fallen Mastery
> "You wanna know the truth?" Kainen said, arms folded.
> "I had Mastery Affinity.
I could learn anything.
Techniques? Absorbed. Styles? Dominated.
I thought I was untouchable."
He paused. Looked away.
> "Then I lost it all.
My Avia gone.
Not suppressed—stripped.
Had to live without it.
That's when I met myself for the first time."
> "I only got my title back after I learned to master not what I could do…
But what I could endure."
They stared.
Henry whispered, "Damn."
---
🎯 APREXION — Arrow Affinity, Bullseye of Discipline
> "I was impatient.
Wanted results without effort."
> "Arrow Affinity taught me precision—but I used it like a shotgun."
> "Until I realized…
True aim isn't about hitting your target…
It's about understanding why you're aiming at it in the first place."
Aprexion's arm glowed—his bow wasn't made of string, but cause and consequence.
---
🧠 HYRAG — Airienpedia, The Mind of Memory
> "I knew everything. Read everything.
But I understood nothing."
> "I once forgot a friend's name because I overwrote it with facts.
That broke me more than any battle."
> "Now I remember everyone. Even those who forgot themselves."
> "Knowledge... without connection, is hollow data."
Jack looked at Kennedy. Kennedy blinked hard.
---
🪳 HELA — Insect Affinity, The Queen of the Crawling Truth
> "I hated my affinity. Insects? Gross. Disgusting."
> "But they thrive in filth. In places others can't survive."
> "So I walked into the parts of myself I never wanted to see.
And when I came out…"
She summoned a swarm that shaped itself into wings.
> "I didn't just control insects…
I became unkillable."
---
🌌 CON — Reality Affinity, The Paradox Himself
He just chuckled.
> "I don't explain myself.
I exist."
Then he blinked—and for a moment, the room reversed itself.
> "I tried to rewrite reality…
Until it rewrote me."
> "Now I negotiate with truth, instead of bending it."
Sonia's eyes glowed again. She felt that one in her bones.
---
🏛️ AMINATOR — The First Champion, The Philosopher of Pain
He stepped forward, different from the rest.
> "I was never a Knight.
I was the first Champion.
Chosen by Centron when the Avian System was still forming."
> "I created the first Five Advanced Techniques. Not for power…"
He raised his hand, and the sky cracked.
> "But because no one else could survive the truth of that era."
> "I wasn't special.
I was just the first to say yes when destiny called."
---
🔒 The Secret Behind Their Presence
Jack finally asked:
> "But… if you're so powerful… why are we able to talk to you?"
Kainen smirked.
> "Because we're using Avian Compression—
to shrink our presence into dimensions you can handle."
Aprexion nodded.
> "We're also using a technique called Optical Variation.
It lets us appear however we need to be seen."
> "Truthfully?" said Hyrag.
"If we showed you our full forms, your minds would collapse."
Kennedy gulped.
Henry raised a hand:
> "So... wait, y'all been cosplayin' humility this whole time?"
Laughter.
> "Something like that."
---
🌟 FORGER TIER — The Realm Beyond Realms
They stood in a line, golden light dancing behind them.
> "We are Forgers.
Not because we're perfect…
But because we create truth from pain."
> "Our job now... is to pass it on.
To you."
> "Not because you're ready.
But because the next generation never is."
---
And with that, the knights stepped back.
The room dimmed.
The visions slowed.
The heartbeat of the universe pulsed gently in the background.
---
> "This isn't the end," said Aminator.
"This is your threshold.
You've reached Adept, yes. But to become Ascended..."
> "You must suffer with grace, grow without pride, and fight with purpose."
---
The team stood in silence.
Not because they had no questions.
But because… for the first time…
they had answers they had to live through themselves.