A week later, they survived.
All of them.
No chimes. No resets. No bruises bad enough to need med-bay. Just five exhausted figures, still standing after five minutes in the kill zone.
When the timer buzzed and the arena lights dimmed, a silence fell across the training chamber. Not heavy with shame this time, but with disbelief. Relief. The kind that hit slow, like realizing you hadn't been breathing for hours.
Nola's lungs heaved, her hands on her knees. Sweat ran down her neck, but her body didn't ache like it used to. It hummed. Her muscles felt denser, faster to respond. The burn in her legs wasn't pain anymore, it was power. A new baseline.
She glanced across the group.
Vera's hair was soaked, her arms streaked with faint bruises, but she stood with military stillness, expression unreadable.
Tris was grinning as he limped over to the wall. "So that's what success feels like," he muttered. "Weird. Thought there'd be more fanfare."
Ari let out a long breath and flopped to the floor. "Just let me die here. In peace. With dignity."
Felix didn't say anything. He looked stunned. Eyes wide, jaw slack. But his chest rose steadily, breathing and not panicking.
Caldre stood at the edge of the platform, hands behind her back. The faintest nod.
"You survived. About time."
No applause. No congratulations. But coming from Caldre, it might as well have been a standing ovation.
She stepped forward. "Your bodies are adapting. You're moving like assets now, not students. Which means you're ready for the next layer."
She paused.
"Your wills."
That word carried weight now. They all had one, but so far, it had been like holding a sword they hadn't earned. Nola had summoned her relic, her golden katana, plenty of times in training, but it still felt like a shadow of something greater.
A piece, not a whole.
Caldre continued, "What you've accessed so far is Stage One, The Summoning. Every will grants a relic, an echo of their myth. It's the most basic level of connection."
She looked directly at Nola. "You've all been using your relics like tools. Blunt instruments. That's not how you survive real combat. That's not how you evolve."
She turned, motioned them to follow.
"Stage Two is understanding. That's what we begin now."
They spent the next week differently.
Less sparring. More meditation. More introspection.
More silence.
Each day started the same. A focused session where they summoned their relics and sat with them. No attacks. No targets. Just observation.
Caldre instructed them to listen, to feel for something beneath the power. "A will isn't a pet," she said. "It doesn't obey. It responds. When you start to understand its shape, its values, its reasons, you begin Stage Two."
Some struggled.
Tris couldn't sit still. "I swear mine's judging me. Like I picked it up at a flea market and it's regretting everything."
Ari's was quiet but intense. She sketched her relic, a black needle-like staff, over and over, trying to capture its angles.
Vera never said anything during sessions, but she stayed longer than anyone else. Hours past their scheduled time, still sitting in the stone chamber, eyes closed.
Felix didn't summon his relic at first. He just looked at it from afar. But each day, he got a little closer.
Nola sat cross-legged on the polished stone, her katana across her knees. Watanabe no Tsuna's energy hummed faintly under her palms, not angry, not eager. Just there.
A warrior, waiting for the right moment.
And then, one morning, Caldre brought them somewhere new.
They descended deeper into the base than they'd ever gone. Beyond the training halls, past the residential quarters, through a security-locked gate lined with symbols Nola didn't recognize.
The walls here were different, smooth, silver-black stone, veined with what looked like crystalized energy. Like starlight trapped underground.
Caldre said nothing as they walked.
Finally, they entered a circular chamber, and the air changed.
At the center of the room stood a massive crystal, six meters high, glowing faintly through shades of violet and cobalt. Thick black cables snaked from its base into the surrounding machinery.
A low hum filled the room, like breathing through glass.
The Legend Orb.
It wasn't a perfect sphere. Its surface shimmered, shifting slightly in shape like liquid that refused to settle. Light pulsed from its core in slow, hypnotic beats. Alive, in a way no stone should be.
Caldre turned to face them.
"This is where your second stage begins properly. The Legend Orb allows will-bearers to deepen their link. To converse."
Nola's eyes widened. "It talks?"
"Not with words," Caldre said. "With memory. Instinct. Vision. Some of you will see your will's past. Some will see their own, twisted back at them through another's eyes."
Tris muttered, "That's not creepy at all."
Caldre ignored him.
"I've reached Stage Three myself," she said. "Understanding your will is Stage Two. Aligning with it, merging values, is Stage Three."
Felix raised a cautious hand. "And... what comes after that?"
Caldre didn't hesitate.
"Stage Four is co-action. That's what Vice Commander Halrix has. At that level, your will doesn't just respond, it fights with you, through you. Your skills and its instincts merge into something stronger."
The group absorbed that in silence.
"Stage Five is what every Legion Commander must reach. In that stage, you become part of your will's myth. You gain access to techniques, memories, and insight that belongs to both of you. Few ever reach it."
She paused.
"Only one person lalive right now is known to have reached Stage Six."
Nola straightened. "The Void Legion commander."
Caldre nodded once. "Correct. The only Legion commander who survived the sixth stage when he tried to reach it along with four other Legion commanders.
Ari's brow furrowed. "Is that even... safe?"
"No," Caldre said. "But it's real."
She let the silence settle.
"You won't reach that here. Maybe not ever. But you'll begin."
She motioned to the crystal.
"One at a time. When the orb calls to you, step forward. Do not resist the connection. Do not lie to it. Do not fight what it shows."
Her voice was harder now. "It will not show you what you want. It will show you what you need."
They waited.
The Legend Orb pulsed slowly, dimly, like a massive heart made of starlight and pressure.
After several minutes, the glow shifted, brightening in a sudden flicker and Vera stepped forward.
No hesitation. No question.
As she placed her hand on the crystal, the lights dimmed around the chamber. Her body tensed, but she didn't pull back. The glow around her deepened, wrapping her like mist.
The others watched in stillness.
Five minutes passed.
Then ten.
Finally, the light faded, and Vera stepped away. She didn't speak. Didn't collapse. Just walked to the wall and sat.
Next was Tris.
Then Ari.
Then Felix, shaking slightly, but still walking forward.
And then, the orb pulsed once more, and Nola's name echoed in her head. Not a sound. Just a feeling. A pull.
She stepped forward.
The moment her fingers touched the crystal, her body locked in place.
Heat.
Then cold.
Then memory.
Not hers, but Tsuna's.
She stood on a battlefield made of ash and blood, katana drawn, a hundred demon-eyes staring back. Her heart pounded, but it wasn't fear. It was resolve. The will to stand against chaos. To be the wall between danger and the people who couldn't fight.
She watched herself, Tsuna, cut through enemies not with rage, but with precision. Honor. Purpose. Not violence for power's sake, but for protection.
That was his truth. His value. Discipline in defense of others.
When she came back, her cheeks were wet with tears she hadn't felt fall.
The orb dimmed.
Caldre's voice cut through the silence.
"Now," she said, "we begin Stage Two, for real. This was just the initiation of it."