Chapter 86: Defying Gravity

Chapter 86: Chapter 86: Defying Gravity

"Give me a place to stand, and a lever long enough, and I shall move the world." — Archimedes

•••

The temple was now nothing but rubble. Above its ruins floated the true ruler of the Tenth Stratum, the enormous Seraph, its halo turning slowly.

And its first attack wasn’t a physical strike. It was gravity itself.

VMM!

Gravity across the entire temple island suddenly tripled.

Broken stones flattened against the ground.

The cracked foundation compressed under its own weight, closing by a hand’s width.

Even the light from the surrounding storms bent strangely, while the air grew heavy with pressure.

The Seraph was pulling down on the entire island.

Its message was clear. It controlled gravity.

The remaining temple structures began collapsing.

Floor tiles that had been standing on their edges fell flat.

An ancient bronze roof beam bent under the enormous weight.

Nothing could resist the pressure.

The entire island was being crushed, one section at a time.

Then the gravitational force spread across the bridge.

On the far island, all thirty-seven students suddenly collapsed into sitting positions.

Above them, the colorful auroras of the Shattered Heavens seemed to freeze.

Back at the ruined temple, Vulcan’s enormous metal body rang under the pressure.

Thalassa’s gathered seawater trembled inside its basin.

Nyx flattened herself against the stones, wisely choosing not to resist.

But Joel remained standing.

For the past week, he had refused to surrender to anything the Tenth Stratum threw at him.

And he wasn’t about to let the sky control him now.

"Ruling," he said.

WHUMM!

[Ding!]

[Domain of the Inertia Sovereign: jurisdiction asserted over local gravity.]

[The sphere rules as follows: inside these fifty meters, down is a tenant, not a landlord. Standard weight is restored, and will remain so at the Sovereign’s pleasure.]

[Note: gravity is not kinetic energy. It is billing. The Sovereign has examined the billing and finds it fraudulent.]

Inside Joel’s fifty-meter Domain, everything returned to normal.

Thalassa’s water rose again.

The glowing cracks along Vulcan’s armor returned to their usual position.

Even the rubble stopped moving, resting naturally on the ground.

Within the Domain, the laws of physics obeyed Joel.

Outside it, the Seraph’s overwhelming gravity continued crushing the island.

But the tripled pressure couldn’t break through his protection. The Seraph seemed to notice.

Then it changed its approach.

Gravity across the entire island suddenly reversed.

•••

Up became down. Everything that wasn’t secured began falling toward the endless sky above.

The temple’s broken bronze roof was the first to go, rising into the darkness.

Chunks of rubble followed, floating upward like slow fountains.

Even the small pile of red-black glass left behind by Gideon Vane began rising.

The Seraph intended to throw the entire island into the endless fall of the Tenth Stratum.

Joel, his legion, and everything around them would go with it.

THUNK!

Vulcan drove his enormous anchors another fathom deeper into the island’s foundation.

His massive body remained firmly in place.

"The premises," he rumbled as debris flew upward around him, "will not be repossessed."

Inside Joel’s Domain, however, gravity remained normal.

Down was still down.

And the battle between their powers had finally become clear.

The Seraph continued changing gravity across the island.

One moment, it increased the pressure.

The next, it reversed gravity or sent powerful gravitational forces tearing through the stone.

But whenever those forces reached Joel’s fifty-meter Domain, they stopped.

His Sovereign Domain rejected every attempt to change the laws of gravity within its boundaries.

It didn’t need to push the attacks away.

It simply refused to let them take effect.

For an entire hour, the battle continued.

The Seraph changed gravity.

Joel canceled its effects.

Rubble rose into the air, only to fall back whenever Joel brought it under his control.

The island became a battlefield where two different powers fought over the laws of physics.

On the distant island, the students watched in silence.

Nobody cheered.

They had already witnessed enough of Joel’s strength to know what he was capable of.

Then the Seraph changed its strategy.

Instead of controlling gravity across the entire island, it began concentrating its power into narrow bands.

A crushing wave of gravity swept across one section of the island.

Then another.

The attacks moved across the ground like patrols.

Joel responded by controlling smaller areas within his Domain.

Wherever the Seraph increased or reversed gravity, Joel restored it to normal.

One section after another.

Soon, the island looked like a chessboard.

Some areas were being crushed.

Others had their gravity reversed.

And wherever Joel’s power reached, everything returned to normal.

For the first time, the Seraph’s control over the island was being challenged, one section at a time.

[Ding!]

[Charges banked: 28.]

[Note: the counterparty is spending its estate to evict a tenant who is charging it rent.]

"The wings, Architect."

Nyx stood atop a rising stream of rubble, riding it like a slow elevator.

"I studied them while that thing was busy controlling the sky. Its wings aren’t made entirely of light. The feathers are connected by tendons, like sails held together by ropes."

She looked toward the Seraph.

"Each wing has one main spine and six primary support lines. Cut those lines, and the whole thing comes apart like a broken chandelier."

"Noted. I’ll deal with it later."

"I do love hearing that."

Then the Seraph stopped changing gravity.

And released the light from its wings.

•••

The first beam of starlight struck without warning.

TSSSS!

A massive lance of white, galaxy-like fire swept across the island, stretching from the horizon to the temple’s foundation.

Everything it touched turned to glass.

The stone didn’t even have time to burn. It simply melted beneath the overwhelming power.

The second beam struck Joel’s Domain.

His barrier held. But stopping it wasn’t easy.

Unlike physical attacks, light traveled too quickly for Joel to react normally.

His Sovereign Domain could control what he detected, but starlight could cross fifty meters almost instantly.

Then came the third beam.

It grazed the edge of his Domain and destroyed a fathom of the island.

Joel immediately understood the problem.

The Seraph had discovered an attack he couldn’t counter quickly enough.

"Thalassa."

"The clouds, Architect," the Oracle replied.

She had already turned her crown toward the sky, studying the enormous storm clouds above them.

"Light is simply weather moving in a hurry. And weather can be negotiated with."

FSHHHH!

Thalassa raised her hand.

Moisture began pouring from the distant storm clouds.

Water stretched across miles of sky, gathering into enormous streams and thin sheets.

She pulled the moisture toward Joel’s Domain and began shaping it.

Millions of tiny droplets formed along the barrier’s outer edge.

Each droplet was about the size of a coin, suspended on thin threads of water.

Together, they created an enormous formation of curved lenses.

The threads hummed as the Seraph’s shifting gravity pulled against them.

Within ninety seconds, Thalassa had transformed the surrounding moisture into a massive optical defense.

A second sky made entirely of water.

Then the Seraph attacked again.

WHOOSH!

A powerful beam of galaxy-fire struck the first layer of lenses.

The light immediately split apart.

It passed through another layer and changed direction.

Then another. And another.

Millions of suspended droplets continued bending and scattering the incoming energy.

By the time the beam emerged from the other side, its concentrated power had disappeared.

Instead of destroying the island, the light spread harmlessly across the Shattered Heavens in beautiful ribbons of color.

New auroras appeared across the distant sky.

Thalassa had successfully redirected the Seraph’s starlight.

But she wasn’t finished. She adjusted one section of the enormous lens formation.

The droplets shifted, aligning themselves toward a single target.

The Seraph fired another beam.

This time, the lenses caught the attack and bent it backward.

The concentrated starlight traveled through the curved formation before shooting straight toward its original source.

And the Seraph’s own attack came rushing back at full power.

Straight into its eyes.

[Ding!]

[Target debuffed: [Refracted Sight].]

[The Seraph is now blind to everything except its own opinion.]

[The Oracle of the Deep notes for the record that light, like tide, answers to whoever holds the water.]

The Seraph stopped firing. Instead, it began gathering its power.

The halo above its head slowed, then started rotating in the opposite direction.

Suddenly, the surrounding storms began moving toward it.

Massive clouds drifted in from beyond the horizon.

Rocks, mist, and streams of light were pulled from every direction across the Shattered Heavens.

Everything slowly gathered above the island, with the Seraph at the center.

Even before the attack began, an overwhelming pressure descended.

VMM!

The deep vibration spread through the island.

Its enormous chains groaned inside their anchors as the force continued increasing.

Above them, the Seraph’s halo turned completely white.

It was gathering all the power it had spread throughout the Tenth Stratum over countless years.

The surrounding storms twisted into an enormous spiral.

Rocks and streams of light joined the movement, forming something that resembled a slowly rotating galaxy.

And the Seraph was drawing all of it into a single attack.

[Ding!]

[Projected event: gravity well, catastrophic grade.]

[Advisory: this will not be an amendment. It will be a foreclosure, on the island, the house, and everything the house keeps.]

[The house is advised to spend everything it has banked, and quickly.]

Across the bridge, all thirty-seven students watched the battle in silence.

Nobody sat down. Nobody spoke.

Victor Kole stood beside the glowing railing, gripping it tightly as he watched a first-year student challenge a god.

For the first time, he began questioning everything he had believed about power and wealth.

There were things his family’s money could never buy.

At the exact center of his Domain, Joel felt the enormous power of the entire Tenth Stratum gathering above him.

The Seraph was preparing to unleash everything it had.

Joel smiled.

His enemy had finally decided to gamble all its power on one attack.

"Vulcan."

"Architect."

"The island’s keel chains. All of them."

Joel glanced toward the enormous spiral forming overhead.

"Rebuild your barrels and forge harpoon heads from the chains. Then cool them in Thalassa’s water."

He looked up at the gathering energy.

"I need something strong enough to hold a star."

Vulcan immediately opened the glowing seams along his body and began working.

Orange light erupted from within the island as his forge came alive.

Across the bridge, thirty-seven students watched in silence.

The final demonstration of the difference between Joel’s power and theirs had begun.