(Cyrus' POV)

A deafening boom reverberated through the void as the two massive creatures collided. The shockwave sent the platform I was on hurtling away from them. I now felt weightless, unaffected by any gravitational force, since there was no celestial body nearby to anchor me. But now, I was struggling in a completely different way.

My arms and legs moved freely as I pleased, yet I remained stationary in the void, unable to change my trajectory. I was trapped, and all I could do was watch the epic battle between these two behemoths.

I was in awe of their sheer power and ferocity, each blow sending shockwaves rippling through the void. Yet, despite their destructive might, there was an eerie elegance to their battle—a cosmic dance as they lunged and evaded each other's attacks with precision.

"What is the purpose of me being in this part of the rift? Am I truly supposed to take on both of them?" Floating aimlessly in the void, I had nothing to do but ponder this question.

Every test or obstacle I had faced so far had not been solely about combat. There was always an underlying message—something I needed to realize within myself. When I encountered the phantom echoes, I had to suppress my negative thoughts and emotions so they wouldn't hold me back. In the labyrinth, I had to trust my instincts and be confident in my choices. But here, in this void, I still didn't understand what I was supposed to figure out.

The words of the phantom echo from the beginning of the trial echoed in my mind: This rift responds and reacts to everything that makes up who you are.

"Everything, huh?" I muttered, recalling that he had mentioned my constellation and lineage played a role as well. I had faced almost everything except my constellation. "Is that what this part of the rift is about?" I thought, just as another shockwave sent me flying further into the void.

The large platform I had originally stood on was shattered, its fragments scattering like asteroids in space. I feared how far I would drift, knowing there was nothing to stop my momentum. I truly felt lost in space, with only the two battling behemoths as my companions in this vast emptiness.

Hurtling through the void, I soon approached another celestial body that resembled a star. Its distant, faint glow gradually intensified as I drew closer. A layer of warmth enveloped me, a stark contrast to the cold emptiness I had experienced so far. My momentum began to slow, as if I had entered its gravitational influence—much like how my own ability functioned.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Crossing into this invisible threshold, I became acutely aware of the pull and pressure exerted on my body. This celestial body was smaller than the last, which I could tell by the difference in its gravitational force. I was able to withstand it far better than before.

"Is this what others feel when I use my ability on them?" I wondered as I was slowly drawn closer.

In this moment of uncertainty, I did the only thing I could—I centered my mind and spirit and began to meditate, hoping to gain insight beyond what my natural senses could perceive.

Closing my eyes, I let the rhythmic pace of my breathing steady me. I focused on how every part of my body interacted with the space around me. The deeper I sank into meditation, the more I felt the increasing pressure as I drifted closer to the celestial body. The pressure felt like there was a metaphysical presence reaching out and pulling me in and enacting its will upon me. The force pulling me toward it didn't feel alive like cosmic energy, yet it felt just as potent.

I knew I was still missing something—some deeper understanding of gravity.

Sinking even further into my meditation, I began channeling cosmic energy outward, almost as if I were preparing to astral project. This was a technique my father had taught me when I first learned how to locate rifts a year ago. It allowed me to expand my senses, creating a mental web of cosmic energy that let me perceive my surroundings more acutely.

I had only ever been capable of this when I was in a deep meditative state, and I rarely had the time to perfect it. With my heightened senses, I could now tell when objects moved closer or farther away by how they interacted with my extended reach of cosmic energy. But something strange happened—every object that passed through my field seemed to pull my energy toward it, no matter its size. The objects felt like they had their own influences over space similar to me and the celestial body I was near.

"Does everything have its own gravitational field? I really just that it only pertained to celestial bodies and entities" I pondered, keeping my breath steady and calm. "Why didn't I notice this before?" I thought as a jagged and broken piece of debris brushed against my cosmic energy mental web.

"I wonder if it's the same reason I never felt the increased G-force I exerted—because I was the one creating the force, making it feel normal to me."

You are essentially a walking celestial body.

The words from my sparring session with my father resurfaced in my mind.

"I think I get it now. I needed to be subjected to a gravitational force greater than mine and what I experienced in the physical realm in order to be aware of the different gravitational forces around me. Its's essentially like breaking the seal. " I thought to myself starting to understand the scope of this new development.

Maintaining my meditation, I shifted my focus to the celestial body near me. Now that I had a better understanding, I treated myself as if I were the debris floating nearby, and the celestial body's gravity was the web of cosmic energy.

I could feel the tension between my core's gravitational push and pull and the celestial body's own force. And in this struggle, my gravitational field was losing.