Alana crouched and panted as the training group took their merciful break from the constant hell of building up their foundation. And it wasn’t even scheduled, but because they had to shift their location. Fat drops of sweat rolled down her neck and face to dangle off the tip of her nose. Everything ached; the Order Vulpis did not pull any punches when they tried to break down their recruits.

Even while the Ghosthound seemed intent on going supernova only a short distance away on the rally station.

“Nothing to see here,” Raymund Ballast waved a hand at the unofficial gathering of Squad members who frowned at the powerful display. Already, he had gathered Wivanya and some other individuals with temperature-based images to address some immediate problems. They were now surrounding the pillar of emerald and crimson fire that threatened to melt its way to the core of the asteroid, keeping the damage from spreading. “We should take inspiration from this; even the Ghosthound never pauses in his self-improvements. Back to work.”

Alana straightened and stretched. Her back cracked pleasantly, but the heat still rolled off the top portion of pyre and pounded against her face. Silhouetted against the bright flames, she could see Wivanya belching waves of frigid energy over and over again, only to watch it barely make a dent in the roiling waves of power that the Ghosthound produced.

It was, Alana had to admit, an effective way to both train Wivanya’s image, motivate her to higher achievement, and mentally exhaust the dragon. At the end of the day, her companion would likely collapse into a senseless pile of sapphire scales.

Alana picked up her training vest and slipped her arms through the sweat-stained straps. She felt the tingle of the Engravings already beginning to activate. Next to her, Zack Krum fumbled his way through his own equipment. With a few groans, the rest of the trainees shifted into motion.

Only the Salem, who had tried for a week and failed to impress the Overseers by asking them to call him the Rat King, remained transfixed by the pyre stretching upward from the Ghosthound’s position. “All that power… What if… what something is really wrong? What if the Ghosthound needs our help? Are we just going to ignore it?”

“Patience, friend,” Wolfram sat still while Zack heaved his encumbered body over to help the massive ogre into his own special equipment. Even Alana couldn’t help but be impressed by the way the teen helped Wolfram without asking anything in return. The garment was so vast that he couldn’t get it on by himself. “This is all part of the Ghosthound’s process. He is… certainly bombastic. Yet he is not the type to disappoint us now.”

“This? How can you claim this to be natural?!” Salem’s voice had a shrill edge. His eyes were wild. Alana made a mental note not to rely too much on the man, considering how quickly he crumbled in the face of anxiety. “That amount of fire could destroy a world. What is happening in-”

“Sure, but if you master that fire, you can protect a world just as well,” Zack said as he tightened the leather straps. Wolfram showed his teeth, adjusting to the sudden extra pressure from the equipment. Zack slapped his back and then looked over at Salem. “That’s why we came out here, right? Because that’s the sort of power we all want to find.”

As though to emphasize Zack’s point, a rippling explosion split open the pillar of flame and sent huge chunks of unstable energy careening through the air. A few appeared to be going into the space around their floating asteroid, but most were definitely curving back around to destabilize their already damaged foundation.

A shout rose amongst the Vulpis Squad members who were suppressing the Ghosthound’s power. Alana watched as the winded Wivanya sucked in a deep breath and then unleashed a few more strained plumes of frigid power. The rest surged forward and slammed their images against the projectiles to exploded them before the Rally Station was destroyed.

Their current overseer snapped his fingers, bringing Alana’s attention back to the immediate surroundings. “Hey, don’t get distracted. They need to keep you bags of shit alive until you can make yourself useful. Don’t worry, the rest of us aren’t so fragile to be afraid of something like that.”

With a few more groans, the trainees got themselves moving. The combat of squad members versus energy debris made it sound like a firework show was going off overhead. The overseer gestured emphatically. All dripping sweat, the group began to jog a miserable circuit around the huge fire. The size of the display began to shrink as they pushed their way through their daily physical training, but the heat only grew more intense. Alana’s feet began to burn, even through her shoes. She frowned down at the ground. There was something unnatural about the heat; it persisted unnaturally far from the source, like the energy it contained was sticky.

If the heat around Randidly’s body was truly powerful enough to make the ground all the way over here sizzling, he would have definitely melted his way through this fragile asteroid. Not that she minded moving, but she knew that this place had sentimental value to all of the Vulpis Squad members.

“It’s just… dangerous. Reckless.” Salem muttered to himself. His nervous eyes kept flicking sideways to the fire.

Alana cleared her throat to grab his attention and then spoke. “You were from a Bubble City, right? So you’ve heard the stories about the Ghosthound, but you’ve never witnessed what he’s like. Sure, he is more powerful now than he’s ever been. Seeing it can feel overwhelming. But… as bewildering as it is, something like this is just par for the course for the Ghosthound.”

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“As I said,” Wolfram wheezed. His heavy and wobbling steps always made him seem one uneven surface away from collapsing. “Bombastic. Impressive. Intimidating.”

Alana lowered her shoulders and urged her body to accelerate. She moved quickly through a few steps before her pounding heart and trembling body forced her to slow back to a snail’s pace. The Overseer frowned at her but said nothing. Her Stamina bottomed out and left her without recourse but to slow down.

The Engravings continued to tingle against her ribs. That was the insidious genius of these training vests; they were designed so you couldn’t force your way through the training. Each moment of the extended session saw you pushed to your limit.

Rather than physical, what you were really training was your resolve. However-

Alana’s eyes blazed with a mirror image of that burning pyre of the Ghosthound. Her own evolved Stat, Inviolability, let her stand briefly above mundane influences. She had been distributing her Stat points elsewhere since she obtained it, because of how impressive the effects were, but suddenly Alana realized that was a mistake. She should have been polishing this specialty.

Her image swirled around in her heart, mulling over a change.

Perhaps the trap of following the Ghosthound was she got to see him grow rapidly in every area. Although that might have also been a result of missing half of his adventures; Alana hadn’t seen him have his weaknesses targeted. His advantages gave him an explosive platform to move in every direction. But seeing him now in this transformative state, perhaps he had just become extremely skilled at disguising his weaknesses and forcing his opponents to engage him in certain confrontations.

And that was something that Alana could emulate. Gritting her teeth, she forced more long strides from her body. She felt her Inviolability activate, before it succumbed to her empty Stamina pool. Even as her Attribute became almost empty, she pushed her way forward.

She might have continued like that had not a ripple emerged in the space above the asteroid. A spectral turtle the size of a city appeared, its long neck supporting a head covered in bulging eyes. Its legs stretched and stabilized itself above them. That turtle craned its neck around and stared deeply at the pyre of the Ghosthound-

Suddenly, Raymund Ballast was there. The leader of the Vulpis Squad waved a hand. His fingers tightened into a fist. In an instant, the massive turtle flickered and disappeared. A new, spectral tail condensed behind Raymund Ballast. The tail wasn’t covered in fur, but gorgeous hexagons, like the turtle’s shell had been.

The mood of the Vulpis Squad changed. Jieu Ronault and DiOrtho Vant flew up and stood side by side with Raymund Ballast. All three floated there, watching the place the image turtle had arrived with bristling aggression. The air was still, aside from the heatwaves, but the entire mood on the Rally Station had shifted.

On the ground, the trainee’s overseer gestured sharply for Alana’s group. “Make yourself scarce. You are not yet prepared to be present if things turn violent. And the situation at Military High Command is… delicate.”

Sharing a glance, the group slapped their chests to deactivate the Engravings and hurried to their dwelling. And no sooner had they arrived than a group of five soldiers stepped out of the ripple in space where the turn had originated. Each wore ornate and heavy armor that glittered in the reflected light from the Ghosthound’s flames.

The leader was a sharp-eyed woman who eyed Raymund Ballast briefly before focusing down in the fire below. “Was it you? You have interfered with the official business of Military High Command. An anomaly was detected in this area and you destroyed the image of our information gatherer. I demand an explanation.”

“Unfortunately, an explanation of the situation below remains out of your reach,” Ballast responded coolly. Even Alana couldn’t help but be impressed by the way the foxman exuded some of the oppressive Nether pressure that the Ghosthound possessed. Part of it, she supposed, was that graceful turtle shell tail that undulated behind him. “We are the Vulpis Squad, under Commander Randidly Ghosthound. Our special training turned out to be even more effective than anticipated. It should be a day of celebration for the Nexus. We apologize for wasting your time, but there is nothing to see here.”

The woman smirked and looked again at the fire. As before, the flames shrank, but the heat was still growing. “And what sort of training creates a fire that produces enough Aether to fuel an entire world?”

Fuel an entire Alpha Cosmos, Alana corrected internally. Then a sharp frown creased her face as she wondered how Expira was faring during this display by Randidly. She sent a quick message to Hank, who replied quickly.

Yea, its a sight in here. Dun’ think anyone is injured, but a second sun appeared in the sky. This one a lot closer. Making people sweat like hell. Seem’s like the moon’s turnin’ a bit drippy, though. Why, you worried bout me?

“I respectfully request that you don’t continue to ask questions about confidential matters.” Ballast’s words brought Alana’s attention back to the confrontation in the sky. She wished she understood more about the Nexus, so she knew why there was so much tension between these two groups.

She could barely feel the power of them both. There was, however, one of the soldiers in the new arrivals that she estimated she could beat in a fight.

Finally, the other leader lost her patience. “We serve the will of the Actus Suprem. Considering the recent instability and seditious activity in the Nexus, all unnatural events need to be thoroughly investigated. So once again, please stand aside.”

“Do we not also serve the Actus Suprem?” DiOrtho Vant finally spoke out with a scowl on his face, the force of his annoyance warping the space around him. “Scram, lieutenant. You don’t have the clout to nose in here.”

The delegation leader seemed to consider that. But her smile was without fear as she looked around at the members of the Vulpis Squad. “Indeed? I suppose I’ll just submit an emergency report and invite the Actus Suprem here herself to find out the truth. This certainly wouldn’t be above her paygrade.”