The system window stabilized.
For a moment, Melaina thought she was reading it wrong.
Then her breath caught.
ELEMENTAL AFFINITY RESULTS:
• Fire — 100%
• Water — 100%
• Air — 100%
• Earth — 100%
• Light — 100%
• Darkness — 100%
Silence swallowed the throne room.
Selena didn't move.
Didn't blink.
"…That's not possible," she whispered.
But Melaina wasn't listening.
Her pulse roared in her ears as she stared at the numbers.
All of them…?
Slowly, she lifted her gaze.
Across from her, Able Colosseum stood utterly still.
But something had changed.
For the first time—
His composure had cracked.
Not visibly.
Not to anyone else.
But Melaina felt it.
Interest.
Real interest.
Then—
Another system window appeared.
Larger.
Brighter.
More… absolute.
HIDDEN CONDITION MET
PERFECT ELEMENTAL SYNCHRONIZATION DETECTED
NEW PATH UNLOCKED:
AETHER GENESIS
Melaina's breath hitched.
"Aether…?"
The word felt heavy.
Ancient.
Like something that existed before the elements themselves.
The system continued.
THE SIX ELEMENTS WILL COMBINE INTO AETHER
The words didn't fade.
They lingered—burned into the air like a law being written into reality itself.
Melaina's chest tightened.
Then—
Something moved.
Not outside.
Inside.
Every element she had touched only moments ago stirred at once.
Fire flared.
Water surged.
Air twisted.
Earth pressed upward.
Light bloomed.
Darkness deepened.
All at the same time.
Her breath caught sharply.
"Wait—"
The sensations didn't stay separate.
They collided.
Not violently.
Not chaotically.
But with an overwhelming, crushing pressure—as if six different truths were being forced into the same space.
Melaina's hands clenched against her knees.
Her body trembled.
"This isn't—"
Her voice broke.
The elements weren't listening anymore.
They were aligning.
Pulling.
Compressing.
The warmth of light twisted into something sharper.
The stillness of earth began to shift.
The freedom of air folded inward.
Water lost its flow.
Fire lost its hunger.
Even darkness—
Paused.
Everything narrowed.
Condensed.
Focused into a single point deep within her core.
Melaina gasped.
It felt—
Wrong.
Not painful.
Not exactly.
But too much.
Like something vast was being forced into a space that couldn't hold it.
The runes along the walls flickered violently.
For the first time since she arrived—
The room reacted.
A low hum spread through the throne hall, rising in pitch as the ambient mana surged and destabilized.
Selena took a sharp step forward.
"Something's not right—"
"Stay back."
Able's voice cut through the space instantly.
Calm.
Absolute.
Selena froze.
But her eyes didn't leave Melaina.
At the center of the room, Melaina's breathing grew uneven.
"I—I can't—"
The pressure increased.
That single point inside her—
Collapsed.
—
Silence.
Total.
Absolute.
For a fraction of a second, everything ceased.
No sound.
No movement.
No sensation.
Then—
A pulse.
It wasn't fire.
Wasn't light.
Wasn't anything she recognized.
A colorless wave rippled outward from her core—soft, quiet… and impossibly dense.
The air distorted.
Not like heat.
Not like wind.
Like reality itself had briefly forgotten how to stay still.
The runes across the chamber dimmed all at once.
Every single one.
Selena's breath caught.
"…What was that?"
Melaina's eyes snapped open.
Her vision blurred for a moment before stabilizing.
She inhaled sharply—
And felt it.
Something new.
Not six separate presences.
Not even balanced.
Unified.
Silent.
Watching.
Her voice came out barely above a whisper.
"…I don't feel them anymore."
Able stepped forward.
Just once.
Measured.
Deliberate.
"You do," he said quietly.
Melaina looked up at him, shaken.
"It's just… different."
Another system window appeared.
Not like the others.
This one flickered slightly at the edges—as if it hadn't fully decided its own form.
AETHER — 1%