Chapter 3: Breaking the Threshold

The silence stretched long after the entity's departure.

Raphael remained still, his body thrumming with residual pain, his mind racing to piece together what had just transpired. His resonance—his very essence—had been touched, and for a moment, it felt as if he had been severed from himself.

That feeling lingered.

His fingers curled into fists. His breathing steadied. He had lost. Not in the conventional sense—he was still alive, but that was only because the entity had let him live. That thought clawed at his pride, at the core of his being.

Incomplete.

The word echoed in his mind like a curse.

"Fuck," he muttered, dragging a hand down his face. His muscles still felt like they were on fire, his resonance still unbalanced, but there was no time to wallow in the weight of defeat.

A flicker of movement drew his attention.

Kieran reappeared in a burst of displaced air, her expression tense. She landed lightly on the ruined ground, scanning the area before her gaze locked onto Raphael.

"You alright?"

Raphael exhaled through his nose. "Still breathing."

She studied him for a moment. "What the hell was that thing?"

"I don't know," he admitted. "But it wasn't lying."

Kieran frowned. "Lying about what?"

He flexed his fingers, testing the state of his body. The pain was fading. His resonance was stabilizing, but that strange rift—the one the entity had inflicted upon him—remained, as if something inside him had been altered.

"...That I don't understand my own power."

The admission left a bitter taste in his mouth.

Kieran tilted her head. "That thing felt strong. It barely even fought, and you—" She hesitated, then sighed. "You've fought stronger things before. So what was different?"

Raphael clenched his jaw. That was the question, wasn't it?

It wasn't just about raw strength. That entity understood something fundamental about resonance that he didn't. It had severed him from his own power—something he hadn't even thought was possible.

He had to fix that.

No—he had to evolve.

His eyes lifted to the shattered landscape around them. He had come here to push his limits, to grow stronger, but it was clear that the path he was walking wasn't enough.

"I need to go deeper," he murmured.

Kieran crossed her arms. "Deeper into what?"

"My resonance. My understanding of it." He exhaled. "I've been treating it like raw power. But it's more than that. It has to be."

Kieran studied him, then nodded. "Then let's figure it out."

Raphael smirked. "That's the plan."

He took a step forward—then another. His body had adjusted to the strain, his mind had processed the confrontation, and now, there was only one path forward.

He would tear apart the very concept of limitation.

And this time, he wouldn't just gain power.

He would learn to resonate.