CHAPTER 157: BURDEN OF THE EXCEPTIONAL.

(A/N Big thanks to everyone for the Power stones and Golden tickets, they mean a lot. As usual, please don’t hesitate to comment or drop a review. ENJOY)

(Don’t forget to join my discord. https://discord.gg/gwRQnjbQDK)

Power stones people, Gimme it.

---------------------------------

The space rippled once—softly, like a curtain being pulled aside—and Daenys stepped into the hall with her usual grin, hands on her hips as if she owned the place.

Orion didn’t need to turn to know it was her. Her spatial signature was distinct: sharp, energetic, tinged with that strange vibrance she always carried into a room. Still, he glanced over his shoulder, taking in the familiar sight.

The two had gotten off to a wrong start, thanks to their altercation in the trial but they’d come to a mutual settlement, they were family after all, and family never fought forever.

He had gotten to know the hot-headed girl past her brash and proud nature, of course even she had grown tempered over the years, a result of growth and the fact that she had never won a challenge against him. In fact no one had. He was known as the undefeated for a reason.

Daenys had changed.

Not as dramatically as he had, but enough.

Her once comical half-and-half hair—one side silver, the other a fiery red—had grown longer, falling in smooth layers to her mid-back. The contrast made her stand out everywhere she went. Her heterochromatic eyes burned just as brightly: red on the right, silver on the left. And paired with her proud smile, her confidence, and her explosive personality... she drew attention without trying.

She caught Orion looking.

A smirk rose immediately. "You like what you see?"

Orion didn’t miss a beat. He smirked right back. "Meh. I’ve seen better."

Exactly as he intended, her expression cracked instantly.

He wasn’t lying either. He did see better every day. But that didn’t take away from Daenys’ beauty. He knew that with a few more years, she would understand exactly how dazzling she was.

Daenys puffed out her cheeks. "That is not a nice thing to say to a girl."

Orion laughed, leaning back slightly in his chair. "Sorry. I’m really not one for lying."

The tick mark on her forehead appeared so clearly it might as well have been drawn on.

"That’s it!" she snapped. "We’re going to the arena. I’m going to beat your ass!"

She marched toward him and grabbed his sleeve, attempting to drag him up. Orion didn’t budge even a millimeter. Her strength wasn’t lacking—she was easily one of the strongest students in A1—but compared to him?

She might as well have been pulling on a statue.

"First," Orion said calmly, "your language is becoming crude. You’re picking up bad habits from those arena hermits. Second, we both know exactly how that’ll end. And third, we have a class right now—even if Instructor Farin isn’t around."

Daenys froze mid-pull and glared up at him, clearly annoyed that she couldn’t move him at all. Finally, with a dramatic huff, she released him and dropped into a seat beside him.

"Why’re you even here anyway?" she muttered, crossing her arms.

There it was.

A small flicker—barely a whisper—but unmistakable.

Jealousy.

Orion hid a smile.

She had a right to feel that way. In the Chronos Academy, Skill Efficiency and Integration wasn’t just an academic course—it was a judgment. By the end of their four-year education, every student was required to master at least two Chronos familial skills:

Kairos Step — Peak proficiency

A technique that allowed the user to act at the perfect moment, enhancing dodges, footwork and counterattacks.

Aether Step — High proficiency

A short-range teleportation skill limited to ten meters at maximum control.

Students who failed to master both weren’t allowed to graduate. They repeated the year.

For most students, achieving peak proficiency in one of the two alone was already difficult. Achieving both? A mountain.

But A1?

A1 had expectations beyond expectations.

For them, mastering both wasn’t enough.

They had to go further. They had to master the advanced pair:

Nova Spark — Peak proficiency

A marble-sized pocket of distorted space compressed tightly enough to release a devastating, focused burst of spatial force.

Nova Bloom — Low proficiency

A larger-scale collapse of warped space, detonated in a radiant explosion capable of altering entire training floors if uncontrolled.

For most, Nova Bloom was a distant goal. A "maybe someday" kind of skill. Something to pursue long after graduating.

Yet, for A1...

It was mandatory.

If any A1 failed to master all four, they repeated the year without exception.

It was the burden of being the best.

The privilege.

The curse.

The standard.

Small wonder Daenys looked frustrated sitting next to him.

Because while she had grown by leaps and bounds...

Orion had mastered all four before even enrolling.

It wasn’t arrogance. It wasn’t a rumor. It was simply a fact known throughout their class.

"You must be bored out of your mind," Daenys muttered under her breath.

Orion lifted an eyebrow. "Not really."

"Don’t lie. You finished everything years ago."

"I didn’t finish everything."

"Liar."

"Fine. I finished most things."

She shot him a sharp glare.

He shrugged innocently.

Truthfully, Skill Efficiency and Integration remained one of the few classes he still found interesting. The complexities of combining techniques, understanding timing, synchronizing the micro-movements of spatial distortion—these weren’t things you learned once and abandoned. They were endless puzzles, evolving and shifting as your understanding grew.

And with his system subtly guiding him—structuring his progression like silent interconnected threads—he advanced through concepts others spent years struggling with.

But he wasn’t alone in his growth.

Daenys, too, had changed.

Her once reckless impulses had become controlled, her temper tempered, her pride shaped into determination rather than arrogance. She had gone from a hot-headed girl ready to fight everyone at the trials to a young woman who belonged in A1.

Four years had polished them all.

A1 wasn’t just a class.

It was a consolidated unit, a small force that dominated every competition, academic or physical. They trained together. They clashed together. They rose together.

They had become partners in every sense.

Friends.

And family.

Daenys tapped her foot impatiently. "So seriously—why are you here? You don’t need this class."

Orion leaned back, letting his gaze drift across the empty hall, the shelves stacked with knowledge, the training floor where they had spent countless hours pushing each other.

"Because," he said softly, "I like to polish what I know. Simple as that."

He wasn’t lying and he wasn’t telling the truth either and he could tell she knew that, that was why he did after all.

Daenys stared at him for a moment, lips parting as if to argue—then closing again. Her shoulders relaxed.

"...Fine," she muttered.