Training Begins With a Fall

The eastern courtyard was alive.

Not with music.

Not with celebration.

But with chaos.

Flames danced through the trees. Stone platforms cracked and groaned. Spirit energy surged through the air like invisible lightning. Birds had long since fled, and even the nearby beasts watched from the shadows, unsure whether to fear or admire what they were witnessing.

The Class of Ten stood at the center of it all.

But standing was a generous word.

Haran lay flat on his back, sword smoking beside him. Kavi was face-first in a tree trunk, steam rising from his shoulders. Meira crouched low, her shadow larger than her body and whispering things no one could hear. Laya was… asleep under a bench, using her beast companion as a pillow.

The rest were scattered, some limping, some gasping, all of them utterly drained.

And above them all, walking slowly along a narrow wooden beam stretched between two trees, was the Flame Empress.

Barefoot as always.

Graceful as ever.

She didn't smile.

But her eyes sparkled with something cruel and beautiful.

Pride.

"You look terrible," she said.

Kavi groaned. "You said it was just a warm-up."

"It was," she replied. "For me."

Haran sat up, rubbing his chest. "You knocked the wind out of me in one hit."

She tilted her head. "Then maybe stop breathing with your chest."

"What does that even mean?"

"Exactly."

Meira, ever quiet, raised a hand slightly. "The flame… inside us… it moves."

The Empress turned to her, the faintest nod of approval.

"It's not meant to stay still," she said. "That flame is alive. It mirrors your emotions. If you're angry, it's wild. If you're calm, it sleeps. You're not controlling it. You're dancing with it."

Laya yawned loudly and rolled over on her beast. "So… nap now?"

"No," the Empress said sharply. "Again."

Groans echoed through the trees.

But no one refused.

They knew better now.

The training wasn't just painful. It was unpredictable. She didn't teach forms. She didn't recite ancient scrolls. She gave riddles. She set them on fire—literally—and forced them to figure out how to survive. She threw them off cliffs and taught them how to land with grace. She screamed at them one moment, then sang lullabies from forgotten worlds the next.

And somehow, they were changing.

Kavi no longer lost control every time he got mad.

Haran's strikes became smoother, less forced.

Meira's shadow began to defend her rather than threaten others.

Even Laya started showing sparks in her palms when she dreamed.

They weren't strong yet.

But they were waking up.

And that terrified the elders.

Inside the main temple, Elder Xin stood with several others around a floating crystal projection of the training ground.

"She's going to kill them," one muttered.

"They were already dying," Xin said calmly. "She's teaching them how to live."

"But this method—"

"Isn't ours," Dev's voice interrupted as he entered the chamber.

The room fell silent.

He approached the crystal and watched as Meira leapt over a wall of flame, her eyes glowing with quiet power.

"They're improving," he said softly.

"They're unstable."

"Then let them learn stability."

One elder stepped forward. "She was sealed for a reason. Her flames—"

Dev turned his head slowly, gaze cold and still.

"I sealed her."

The elder flinched.

Dev didn't raise his voice.

He didn't need to.

"She isn't the same. None of us are. We evolve… or we decay."

No one argued after that.

In the eastern courtyard, the Empress stood at the edge of a deep ravine, her hands behind her back.

The students lined up in front of her, sweating, bruised, but more alert than they had ever been.

"Today," she said, "we jump."

Haran blinked. "Jump what?"

She pointed.

The ravine was deep.

Bottomless, some said.

A place where spiritual beasts had once disappeared without trace. No one dared approach it. Even Dev had placed seals around its borders.

But now…

"You want us to jump into that?" Laya asked.

"Yes."

Kavi frowned. "There's nothing down there."

"Exactly."

Meira looked down, silent.

The Empress stepped forward, her voice softer now.

"You've lived your lives tied to fear. To rules. To failure. I'm cutting those ropes."

She held out her hand, and golden fire danced across her palm.

"This flame inside you isn't power. It's truth. It knows what you need. And right now… it needs you to fall."

They hesitated.

Then, without another word, she turned and stepped into the air.

No spell.

No flight.

She fell.

Vanished into the mist.

No screams.

No pain.

Just gone.

The students stood frozen.

One heartbeat.

Two.

Then Haran stepped forward.

"I'll go."

He took a breath.

And jumped.

Then Kavi.

Then Laya, groaning.

Then Meira.

One by one, they vanished.

And in that fall… something changed.

They didn't hit the bottom.

There was no bottom.

There was light.

The deeper they fell, the brighter it became.

Each of them landed in a space filled with glowing embers, floating stars, and the hum of ancient chants.

The Empress stood at the center.

Her eyes brighter than before.

"This," she said, arms wide, "is the flame realm. A world I built from my pain. A world I buried for ten thousand years."

They looked around, stunned.

Here, their bodies felt lighter.

Their flames pulsed with excitement.

"Here, we start again," she whispered.

"Here, you'll be reborn."