Chapter 6: Fragments of Power

Raphael stood on the cracked ground, the aftershocks of his resonance still pulsing through the air. It wasn't just raw power surging through him—it was understanding. A connection reestablished, a missing thread woven back into the tapestry of his being.

For the first time, his resonance wasn't just responding to him.

It was speaking to him.

He flexed his fingers, feeling the weight of something new. The fragmented construct he had touched in the void—it wasn't just a piece of his power. It was a memory. A glimpse of something he had once wielded but had long since forgotten.

Kieran watched him carefully, her usual smirk absent. "You look different."

"Because I am different."

He turned his hand over, watching as faint, harmonic ripples danced across his skin. The resonance wasn't just flowing through him—it was adapting, evolving.

He clenched his fist.

And the air around him shifted.

For a split second, it was as if the world itself had slowed down. The weight of gravity, the movement of the wind, the pull of existence—everything subtly adjusted in response to his will.

His resonance had always been powerful, but this was different.

This was control.

Kieran's eyes narrowed. "What did you see?"

He took a slow breath, trying to piece it together. "A part of myself that I forgot. Or maybe… a part that was hidden from me."

"By who?"

"That's what I intend to find out."

She folded her arms, her expression unreadable. "You're not gonna lose yourself in all this, are you?"

Raphael met her gaze. He understood the underlying question. The fear that as he grew stronger, he would become something… else.

Something inhuman.

He smirked, though there was a sharp edge to it. "Not unless I decide to."

Kieran scoffed. "That's reassuring."

---

The First Trial

Raphael turned his focus inward, diving deeper into his resonance. If that fragment had been waiting for him, then there had to be more. Pieces scattered throughout his existence, waiting to be reclaimed.

The question was—where?

As if answering him, a pulse echoed in his mind. A direction. A call.

He turned toward the distant mountains. "There."

Kieran raised an eyebrow. "And what exactly is there?"

"Answers."

Without another word, he started walking.

Kieran clicked her tongue. "You know, normal people actually explain things before charging into the unknown."

Raphael glanced at her over his shoulder, amusement flickering in his eyes. "Then it's a good thing I'm not normal."

She sighed, falling into step beside him. "Yeah, no kidding."

---

A Place That Shouldn't Exist

The mountains loomed before them, jagged peaks cutting into the sky like the broken teeth of a god. The air here was heavy, thick with something unnatural.

Raphael felt it immediately.

A dissonance.

His resonance flowed freely through the world, but here, it hesitated. The energy around this place didn't just resist him—it rejected him.

Kieran noticed it too. "I don't like this place."

"That makes two of us."

But he didn't stop.

He pressed forward, step by step, until he reached the base of the mountains. And there, half-buried beneath centuries of stone and time, he saw it—

A door.

Ancient. Bound in chains that pulsed with unfamiliar sigils. The material wasn't metal, nor was it stone. It was something… else.

Something wrong.

His resonance shuddered against it.

Kieran tensed. "Raphael. Maybe we should—"

Before she could finish, the door opened.

Not by force.

Not by command.

But because it had been waiting for him.