Chapter 3 : Day 1 Training — Section One: Gravity’s Crucible

The Sprite altered the Void around them into a gauntlet. Stone pillars condensed into immense weights that fell and suspended, crushing air into pressure. Aarya’s first drills were merciless — hold his stance while the void multiplied force against his limbs; run until the doubled-energy feedback attempted to rip his muscles into ash; stand in heat until sweat crystallized and reformed.

Fury Sprite (coaching, cold): Breathe with intent. Not like a drowning man. Slow the mind. Channel every scream into a single point of focus. Your body can be broken. Your will cannot.

The Void: Gravity’s Crucible

The Sprite’s burning eyes flickered as Aarya barely stood under the crushing force.

Aarya (panting): “What do you mean this place is different? Differently how?”

The Sprite’s voice slithered, calm but venomous.

Sprite (lying): “One day here equals one day on Earth. Don’t fear—time flows the same. You won’t age faster than your world. The only danger here is your endurance, boy.”

Void's Time Dilation: In truth, the Void devoured time itself. Here, 100,000,000 days equaled a single day on Earth. You will experience training at a rate no human frame does outside. A single day here can teach you what decades would there.

Aarya’s body would not age, preserved by the dark energy, but his soul would be ground endlessly against the weight of eternity.

The Sprite hid this truth deliberately. Because when the despair grew too heavy, when the training finally shattered the boy’s will—he would not simply die. The Sprite would consume him. His body, mind, and soul would be ripped apart and reforged as a vessel. A perfect weapon.

Sprite (in thought): “Train, boy. Burn, crawl, scream. One day, when you finally break, you will be mine to command.”

For now, Aarya believed the lie.

Sprite (aloud, cold): “Welcome to Section One: Gravity’s Crucible. Here, you will learn nothing but pain. Burn, boy… and prove you are more than ashes.

When Aarya’s legs trembled, Fury Sprite struck with illusions — shadows of those who had betrayed him: masked mafias, the faces of the men who had laughed in courtrooms, the cold eyes of those who had seized wealth. Each illusion forced Aarya to react, to strike, to miss, to learn the calculus of blood and balance.

Aarya (gritting teeth): I remember their faces. I remember mother’s words. Fight until the last drop.

The Void accepted his oath, and the feedback loop began to work. Energy he burned in each motion returned not as pain, but as sharpened reflexes. His breath grew deeper, his sight narrower, his hands faster.

Fury Sprite (rare softening): You adapt quickly. Too quickly. Do not let pride drown you. Pride breaks better than bone.

Aarya (voice low): I will stay humble. I will stay hungry.

Parallel — The City Trains

*Outside, City S buzzed like a hive. The nouveau-rich bulked their private armies. Ranked sects expanded:

Villains trained in SSS dojos, hungry and cocky.

Corrupt politicians hired tacticians and formed shadow councils.

Iravya: in the Ranked 7S hall, she learned to slice the silence between heartbeats, to aim vengeance like a surgeon. She kept Aarya’s locket secret and burned for a confrontation she imagined as betrayal. She had become a weapon as well.*

The city sharpened all its edges, unaware that two blades — one ignorant and furious, one precise and deliberate — were being honed for the same bloody reckoning.

Closing — Day One in the Void Ends

When the first Void-day dwindled, Aarya collapsed onto cold stone, every muscle a burning wire. Yet under the fatigue there was a new thing — a quiet proof that he could survive. The Fury Sprite hovered, watching the boy like a farmer watching a sapling that might become a tree of thorns.

Fury Sprite: You will break. You will weep. You will laugh at the fragility you once called yourself. Keep this: vengeance requires more than anger. It needs patience, cunning, and bone-hard discipline.

Aarya (clenching fist, eyes aflame): Teach me. I will learn. I will be ready.

Outside the Void, clocks turned, money changed hands, and Iravya tightened the locket she believed bound them. Inside the Void, time multiplied its teeth and the first gates of true metamorphosis closed behind Aarya. The training gate had opened — and there was no turning back.

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