The gateway to Floor 16 opened into a frozen wasteland.
The sky was grey heavy with unmoving clouds. The ground stretched in jagged sheets of black ice fractured into uneven plates that reflected dim light like cracked mirrors. Pillars of frost rose at random intervals some thin as spears others thick as fortress towers.
The air was dense but not cold in a natural way. It carried weight.
Kael stepped through without hesitation.
His boots crushed frost underfoot.
The gateway sealed behind him.
Kael did not stretch and he did not warm up. He simply walked forward.
Shen Yao remained suspended high above and silent and watching Kael's aura which was fearful at this movement like he completely changed as a person from floor 11 to now floor 16th.
"This time there are multiple species in one floor or sometimes not. So be careful because of the changes
Kael had changed after Floor 15 Not only expression but also in his posture and in his stillness.
His movements no longer wasted motion between actions. His breathing carried rhythm instead of strain. His gaze didn't search for enemies.
It calculated terrain.
The ice cracked.
The first wave emerged.
Glacial Reavers of level 93.
Tall humanoid constructs formed of dark ice layered over bone structures. Their limbs were elongated ending in blade-like edges. Their torsos were narrow ribbed with crystalline veins pulsing faint blue light.
There were twenty of them. They did not roar. They stepped forward in synchronized silence.
Kael stopped walking.
The Reavers halted at fifty meters.
They were feeling it. They didn't understand it. But they felt Kael's presence.
He didn't release authority outward.
He didn't expand it like before. It was simply there like a king which was condensed and stable.
The air around him felt heavier within a few meters.
A distortion subtle enough that only beings attuned to violence could sense it.
The Reavers hesitated for half a second and with no choice then they attacked.
They moved faster than Revenants which was sharper and more precise.
Three advanced directly.
Two flanked wide.
The rest maintained their positions.
Kael moved first. He didn't rush.
He stepped into their attack range deliberately.
The first Reaver slashed horizontally.
Kael leaned slightly back and drove his palm into its armour with controlled force.
The ice shattered inward. He didn't follow through.
He pivoted instantly grabbing the second Reaver's wrist and twisting with minimal authority reinforcement.
Its arm snapped cleanly.
He used the broken limb as leverage and flung it into two approaching units.
The impact cracked the ice floor beneath them.
They were lighter than Tyrants but faster than Wardens.
But brittle at compression points.
Kael began targeting joints.
Knees.
Elbows.
Neck.
He didn't overpower them. He dismantled them thoroughly. He knew the level difference is huge when compared to him and the Reavers, but he could sense It that he could defeat them.
But still the reavers were fast enough due to level difference this time a Reaver pierced his side with a blade arm.
The ice blade lodged between ribs.
Kael looked down calmly.
He grabbed the blade with one hand and crushed it where it connected to the forearm, then stepped forward, forcing his shoulder into the Reaver's chest and splitting it apart from inside.
He moved continuously with just systematic reduction.
The first wave ended in under ten minutes.
Kael stood still the frost around him had melted slightly.
It was not from heat but from pressure.
Shen Yao's eyes narrowed faintly.
It was visible now around Kael's body within a two-meter radius the air subtly bent.
Authority was no longer something he deployed. It had begun orbiting him.
The second wave came without warning.
The ice beneath the battlefield exploded outward.
Frost bound Behemoths rose of level 95.
Massive quadrupedal monsters plated in layered ice armour. Their backs were lined with jagged crystalline spines. Their jaws emitted visible vapor with every breath.
Six of them. Each larger than a Grave Tyrant.
They did not hesitate like the Reavers. They charged furiously.
The ground trembled.
Kael didn't brace.
He stepped toward them. The first Behemoth jumped on Kael.
Instead of dodging wide Kael stepped inside its attack line and drove his shoulder upward beneath its jaw while reinforcing his spine with compressed authority.
The impact lifted the Behemoth's front half off the ground.
He twisted redirecting its weight and slammed it sideways into another charging Behemoth.
Both crashed across the ice.
The remaining four circled.
They were cautious now. They felt it. That pressure. That density.
Which was not only overwhelming. But undeniable powerful.
One attacked from behind.
Kael didn't turn fully.
He shifted his stance slightly.
The Behemoth's claws struck an invisible resistance field around him not a barrier but dense atmosphere.
Its momentum faltered just enough.
Kael pivoted and struck its foreleg at the joint.
The armour cracked. He followed with three rapid strikes to the same fracture point.
The limb shattered. The Behemoth collapsed.
He mounted it and drove his fist repeatedly into its skull until the core shattered.
The others adapted. Two attacked simultaneously from different elevations.
Kael leapt. He landed atop one Behemoth's spine and used it as a launching platform to collide mid-air with the second.
Both crashed down violently. The battlefield fractured further.
Kael's movements were sharper now and way cleaner.
He wasn't forcing outcomes. He was reading structural weaknesses before contact.
Within twenty minutes all six Behemoths lay broken across the ice.
The third wave did not come immediately.
The wasteland grew silent. Kael inhaled slowly.
The air around him pulsed faintly not with visible light but with distortion.
Shen Yao observed carefully. He said nothing.
Then the sky cracked.
A massive shadow descended through the grey clouds.
The Frost Sovereign.
A towering humanoid figure clad in crystalline armour thicker than any previous enemy. It carried a massive halberd formed from condensed glacial energy. Its presence caused the surrounding temperature to plummet instantly.
This was the Floor 16 commander of level 99. Just one step away from level 100, but still a scary entity.
This was not the final boss of floor 16th but a dominant entity.
It landed fifty meters away.
The ice beneath its feet froze into layered formations.
It stared at Kael and it felt it clearly.
It felt Kael's aura which was unintentional and unshaped.
The Sovereign did not attack immediately.
It adjusted its grip.
Then moved forward and attacked.
The halberd swept downward with enough force to split mountains.
Kael moved forward instead of backward.
He stepped inside the halberd's arc and drove his elbow into the Sovereign's wrist joint.
The weapon's trajectory shifted slightly enough to avoid lethal damage.
The ground behind Kael exploded from residual force.
The Sovereign rotated instantly sweeping low.
Kael jumped and landed on the halberd shaft itself.
He ran along it toward the Sovereign's torso.
The Sovereign released the weapon and grabbed him mid-run.
Its grip tightened.
Ice spikes formed along its arm piercing into Kael's flesh.
Kael shouted with pain. But he somehow must defeat it.
He compressed authority fully inward.
His muscles locked.
He drove both knees into the Sovereign's chest plate.
Little Cracks started to form.
The Sovereign hurled him across the battlefield.
Kael rolled regained footing instantly.
Blood ran down his arms.
The Sovereign reformed its halberd.
The air grew heavier.
Kael exhaled slowly.
For the first time he became aware of it.
The air around him the subtle distortion he didn't understand it.
But he felt resistance when he moved.
The Sovereign charged again.
This time when it entered within five meters of Kael the sovereign's speed dropped fractionally.
Its movement encountered weight.
That was enough. Kael closed the distance in a single explosive step.
He drove his fist directly into the chest crack he created earlier.
Authority compressed into a pinpoint.
The crystalline armour shattered outward.
The Sovereign staggered. Kael did not let it recover.
He stepped deeper into its guard and unleashed a barrage of short-range strikes each one targeting expanding fractures.
The Sovereign roared and released a shock wave of freezing energy.
Ice spread outward rapidly. Kael's legs froze in place.
The Sovereign raised its halberd for a finishing blow.
Shen Yao did not move.
He watched.
Kael inhaled.
Instead of expanding authority outward to break the ice he compressed it inward again.
His muscles tightened beyond previous limits.
He ripped his legs free from the ice and lunged forward at the exact moment the halberd descended.
The blade missed his head by centimeters.
He grabbed the Sovereign's wrist.
Then drove his forehead into its exposed core cavity.
Once.
Twice.
On the third impact the core shattered.
The Frost Sovereign collapsed.
The wasteland went silent.
Ice structures crumbled. Wind resumed faint movement.
Kael stood in the center of the fractured battlefield.
Breathing steady with bruises and blood and frostbite all over his body.
The distortion around him was now unmistakable.
A faint gravitational field.
Shen Yao descended slowly.
He circled Kael once.
"You've stopped releasing authority" Shen Yao said quietly.
Kael looked at him.
"It doesn't need to be released anymore."
Shen Yao nodded slightly.
"It has begun forming."
Kael frowned faintly.
"Forming?"
"An aura is the shadow of sustained power" Shen Yao said. "You've killed without pause. Adapted without reliance. Compressed without waste. Your authority has stabilized into atmosphere."
Kael glanced at his hands.
He hadn't noticed.
The Frost Sovereign had noticed.
The Behemoths had noticed.
Even the first wave had felt it.
Shen Yao continued.
"On Floor 17 this will either strengthen you… or suffocate you."
The system responded.
[Floor 16 Cleared]
[Authority Stability Increased]
[Unregistered Phenomenon Detected]
Kael looked toward the newly forming gateway.
"Floor 17" he said.
Shen Yao's expression was unreadable.
"You're no longer just climbing" he said. "You're changing."
Kael stepped toward the gateway.
The frost beneath his feet cracked without him touching it.
Not only from the force but from density.
The aura followed him.
Which was uncontrolled and unfinished.
But undeniably fearful.
And this time he was beginning to feel it too.