The smoke from the kinetic mine didn't drift; it hung heavy in the damp night air, clinging to the cargo containers like a shroud.
Ren stood atop the highest stack of crates, the metallic case of Void Crystals gripped firmly in his left hand. The Ring of Weight in his marrow pulsed, syncing with the adrenaline flooding his system. He could smell the ozone of the blast and the distinct, sulfurous tang of Valerius's rising mana.
Below him, the red-haired noble scrambled to his feet. His fine cloak was shredded, and his face was smeared with soot, but his eyes were glowing with a humiliation that burned hotter than his fire.
"You dare?" Valerius screamed, his voice cracking. "Do you know who I am? I am of House Ignis! I own this gate! I own the air you breathe!"
Ren looked down, his face hidden behind the black cloth mask, his eyes deep pools of apathy.
"Ownership is an illusion, Valerius," Ren's voice was a low, vibrating growl, distorted by his throat muscles. "You can't own what you can't defend."
He tossed the heavy case into the air.
Valerius's eyes tracked the prize. "Mine!"
Ren didn't catch the case. He kicked it.
Mass Transfer: Right Leg.
Ren shifted his density into his shin. His leg became a battering ram. He kicked the falling case, launching it horizontally across the platform toward the edge of the floating island, where the darkness of the open sky awaited.
"NO!" Valerius shrieked. He extended his hand. "Flame Whip!"
A lash of condensed fire snapped out, trying to catch the case.
But Ren was faster. He dropped from the crate, plummeting straight down. He didn't land softly. He slammed into the metal grating of the platform with the weight of a falling boulder.
BOOM.
The impact shockwave rippled through the floor. Valerius lost his footing, his spell going wide. The whip singed the air, missing the case, which vanished over the edge into the clouds below.
Valerius stared at the empty space where his future power had just fallen. Then he turned to Ren, his expression twisting into pure, homicidal madness.
"You threw it away," Valerius whispered, flames erupting from his shoulders. "You threw away a king's ransom just to spite me?"
"I didn't throw it away," Ren said, straightening up. He cracked his neck. "I just put it in storage."
"Die, trash!"
Valerius clapped his hands together. A Tier 3 spell circle formed instantly. "Hellfire Barrage!"
Dozens of fireballs, each the size of a human head, launched at Ren.
Ren didn't run. The platform was too narrow.
He reached over his shoulder and unclipped the Rusted Blade. He didn't draw it. He kept it in the Void-Sheath Vara had crafted.
The sheath was made of Star-Metal, treated to suppress mana. But Star-Metal had another property: it disrupted elemental cohesion.
Ren spun the sheathed sword like a staff.
Whump. Whump. Hiss.
As the fireballs neared him, Ren batted them aside. When the Star-Metal sheath touched the magical fire, the flames didn't explode—they unraveled. The mana structure collapsed upon contact with the Void-aligned metal.
Valerius watched in horror as his barrage was swatted away like harmless flies.
"Impossible," Valerius gasped. "That's... that's anti-magic material! Who are you?!"
Ren stepped forward. He didn't rush. He walked with the terrifying inevitability of a landslide.
"A student," Ren said, closing the distance.
Valerius panicked. He switched from offense to defense. "Fire Wall!"
A curtain of flames erupted between them.
Ren didn't stop. He activated his Abyss Markings. The black veins under his clothes flared. He walked straight into the fire.
The heat was intense, singing his eyebrows and scorching his leather tunic. But his dense bones absorbed the thermal energy, distributing it deep into his marrow before it could cook his organs.
He burst through the wall of fire, smoking but unharmed.
Valerius stumbled back, tripping over the unconscious smuggler. "Stay back! My father will—"
Ren grabbed Valerius by the throat.
He lifted the noble off the ground with one hand. Ren squeezed, just enough to cut off the air, but not enough to crush the windpipe—yet.
"Your father isn't here," Ren whispered into Valerius's ear. "And neither is your pride."
Ren raised his other hand, making a fist. He prepared to deliver a blow that would shatter Valerius's jaw and send a message to every noble in Sky Haven.
Shing.
A sound. A sharp, high-pitched whistle of displaced air.
Ren's instincts screamed. Danger. Tier 4.
He didn't think. He threw Valerius aside and dropped flat.
A transparent blade of wind sliced through the space where Ren's neck had been a microsecond ago. It cut through the steel crate behind him as if it were butter.
Ren rolled backward, springing to his feet in a defensive crouch.
From the shadows of the gatehouse, a figure emerged. He wore the uniform of a butler, but his stance was that of a killer. He held a rapier that glowed with a pale green light.
The Shadow Guard.
"Uncouth," the butler said, adjusting his glasses. "To lay hands on the Young Master is a capital offense."
Ren narrowed his eyes. 'Wind Affinity. Tier 4. Fast. Faster than me.'
Valerius coughed on the ground, clutching his bruised throat. "Kill him, Sebastian! Don't let him leave alive!"
The butler, Sebastian, vanished.
He didn't teleport. He just moved so fast that Ren's eyes couldn't track him.
Left.
Ren shifted his weight instantly, making his left side heavy as lead.
CLANG.
The rapier struck the Void-Sheath on Ren's back. The impact was heavy enough to crack stone, but Ren's increased density kept him rooted.
"Oh?" Sebastian murmured, reappearing behind Ren. "Good reflexes. But reflexes are not enough."
He thrust again. A flurry of strikes.
Ren was on the defensive. He couldn't attack; he could only use the indestructible sheath to parry. He was being pushed back toward the edge of the platform.
"You have skill," Sebastian noted, his voice calm. "But you lack mana. A car without an engine cannot outrun the wind."
Wind Blade: Sever.
Sebastian unleashed a horizontal slash meant to cut Ren in half at the waist.
Ren realized he couldn't block this. The sheath was too narrow. The wind blade was too wide.
Improvise.
Ren reached into his pouch. He grabbed the remaining Kinetic Mine.
He didn't throw it at Sebastian. He threw it at his own feet.
"Madness," Sebastian noted, widening his eyes.
BOOM.
The mine exploded.
Because Ren controlled his own density, he made his legs heavy enough to withstand the blast, but he kept his upper body light. The explosion launched him backward, over the edge of the platform, out into the open sky.
He flew past the surprised butler, tumbling into the clouds below.
"He... killed himself?" Valerius wheezed, standing up.
Sebastian walked to the edge, peering down into the abyss of clouds. "No, Young Master. He used the blast to escape. He is falling."
"Good!" Valerius spat. "Let him splatter on the ground three miles down!"
Sebastian frowned. "Perhaps. But the case... he kicked it off first. He isn't falling to his death. He is falling to retrieve his prize."
Freefall.
The wind roared in Ren's ears. He was falling at terminal velocity, the lights of Sky Haven shrinking above him.
He spotted the metallic case tumbling a few hundred feet below him.
Ren streamlined his body, increasing his density to fall faster. He became a human bullet.
He caught up to the case. He grabbed the handle.
Now came the hard part. Stopping.
He was two miles up. He had no parachute. No levitation spell.
But he had the Rusted Blade.
Ren spotted a lower floating island—one of the agricultural districts that orbited the main campus. It was passing beneath him.
He couldn't land on it; he was moving too fast. He would turn into red mist.
He had to anchor.
Ren drew the Rusted Blade. He channeled his Abyss Markings into the ancient steel. The blade hummed, hungry for the friction.
As he whizzed past the massive anchor chain of the agricultural island, Ren swung.
He hooked the sword onto one of the giant iron links.
SCREEEEECH!
Sparks showered the night sky. The friction was agonizing. Ren's arm felt like it was being ripped out of its socket. He roared, activating Mass Anchor to reinforce his shoulder joint with the weight of a mountain.
The sword cut deep into the iron link, slowing his descent violently.
He swung around the chain, slamming into the metal with a bone-jarring thud.
He hung there, dangling two miles above the earth, smoke rising from his boots and sword. But in his left hand, he still gripped the case.
Ren looked up at the distant silhouette of the Southern Gate.
"Lesson one, Valerius," Ren gasped, spitting blood into the clouds. "Gravity always wins."
He pulled himself up the chain, disappearing into the dark underbelly of the agricultural island. He had the crystals. He had the leverage. And now, he had a nemesis.