I stood tall, or at least I tried to. In her presence, I felt… narrow. Insufficient. She wasn't merely strong. She was incomparable—a woman whose very breath coerced time to yield.
I clenched my fists. "I'm ready."
Seo-yoon's gaze narrowed slightly. Then—without preamble—she raised one hand.
And reality split.
A storm of Aether howled from her palm, carving the void open like a cosmic wound. I dropped to one knee, unable to withstand its pressure. Not just power… but instruction was in that release. It was as if my very soul was being reshaped.
She spoke again.
> "You hold the Lockhart blood. That gives you privilege, but not purpose. You wish to go further than Father. You wish to surpass everything. Then listen carefully, Muhan."
> "From now on, you will store Aether not in your core, not in your soul—but in a dimension that exists within you. You will construct it, feed it, temper it. It will grow with you. And when you are ready... it will overflow beyond comprehension."
I could barely breathe.
> "And you must abandon your reliance on Blue Aether."
My breath caught. "What?"
> "There exists a higher flame. A concept above your understanding… but not unreachable."
She raised her hand, and the void above us combusted into crimson flame.
> "Red Aether," she said. "The result of combusting Blue Aether beyond its dimensional limits. It doesn't burn what exists. It burns what could exist."
I stared, unable to speak. The red light refracted across my body, and my veins screamed in response. I could feel the beginnings of the dimension within me stirring.
Seo-yoon approached.
She placed her finger on my forehead, and I felt a thousand impossible glyphs surge into my soul.
> "Now build it," she whispered. "And survive."
Silence.
It wasn't quiet.
It was absolute.
After Seo-yoon's presence faded into the scarlet auroras, I stood alone. The void around me pulsed faintly, and yet within me—a deeper chasm had opened. I could feel it. That empty space my sister had awakened.
> A dimension… inside me.
But it was barren. Hollow. Dormant.
I closed my eyes and drew in breath. My Ether surged from my core, swirling outward. I commanded it toward the inner space—but nothing happened. No shift. No pulse. The void remained untouched.
I tried again.
Harder.
My Aether screamed as I forced it inward, blazing with blue luminescence. I compressed it, shaped it, willed it to take form.
The result?
Agonizing backlash.
A shockwave of rejection tore through me. My body buckled. I fell to one knee, coughing etheric blood. My vision cracked with flickering lines of instability. My body wasn't collapsing—it was my sense of self fracturing.
> "Why…?" I breathed. "Why won't it form…?"
I had trained my mind. Strengthened my soul. Survived battles no human should have. And yet—this trial mocked all of it.
Was I not worthy to follow in Seo-yoon's path?
"No."
The answer came from me—but not as defiance.
As remembrance.
I stood again.
The forming sphere pulsed within me.
Not with power…
But with potential.
That was more dangerous—more divine—than any might I'd ever wielded.
This wasn't just energy—it was a wellspring. The first true tether between my identity and the architecture of something greater. A dimension inside me, seeded by my own will… yet not born of it alone.
I sat cross-legged in the center of the training realm, a flat horizon of shifting ether clouds stretching infinitely in all directions. My body glowed faintly, tendrils of blue Aether cycling inward toward the core now floating inside me.
> Compress. Harmonize. Ignite.
Each repetition edged the inner dimension toward stabilization. My vision wavered, and I saw threads—thin, crimson patterns beginning to spiral around the blue core. They weren't artificial.
They were natural.
Red Aether was not an element to attain.
It was a law to become.
Then, from nowhere—heat.
Pure. Eternal.
Flames surged up around me—not real fire, but conceptual ones. An instinct told me: this was the test. The dimension within was not just a storage—it was alive. And now, it hungered.
It wanted proof.
And so it tested me with flame.
My nerves screamed. My blood boiled inside its veins. My Aether snapped, fighting to hold shape. And in that crucible, my mind began to break—
Until I heard her voice.
> "Red Aether isn't just compressed Blue," Seo-yoon's voice echoed from the beyond. "It is identity, turned flame. You don't control it. You offer yourself to it. Burn who you were... to become who you must be."
I grit my teeth.
"I won't burn."
The sphere pulsed violently.
"I'll be the fire."
And I let go.
Not of control.
But of fear.
Blue Aether erupted inside me—every particle folding, compacting, combusting under the pressure of my surrender. The core cracked—
Then exploded into a crimson inferno.
I didn't scream.
I roared.
Light flooded the entire training dimension. Pillars of red spiraled into the sky—Aether, but not just raw energy. These were conceptual flames, able to overwrite time and law and reason itself.
The first layer of my Inner Dimension was born.
And it was Red.
---
Elsewhere…
On a plateau of stilled time, Seo-yoon watched it all.
The eruption of light had colored even her boundless surroundings. Her raven hair flowed around her like an infinite veil. She smiled softly, folding her arms under her white and black robe that shimmered with fractal glyphs.
> "You truly are my little brother," she said. "But this is only the beginning."
Her eyes gleamed—golden irises with spiraling Arcanian symbols.
> "Let's see if you can forge with what you've now birthed."
Behind her, the dimensional structure of the Crimson Aether Field began to react.
Something… ancient stirred.
Something born of the first Red Aether ever created.
Something even Seo-yoon once feared to awaken.