Far beneath the neatly cobblestoned streets of Everiven, under the sewage drains, and even deeper than the foundations of the city prison, lay The Old Cistern.

  It was an ancient water reservoir from an era before the Palace was built. The chamber was vast, shaped like a gigantic dome of moss-covered black bricks, with support pillars as thick as banyan trees, submerged in knee-deep brackish water.

  There was no light here. The darkness in this place was physical; heavy, damp, and pressing against the eyeballs.

  "Open," Kars commanded.

  His voice bounced off the dome walls, creating a hollow echo.

  Mira stood on a dry stone platform in the middle of the black water. She extended her hands. Hesitantly, her fingers touched the Igniter bracelets made by Dalt. Her body still ached from the class earlier that afternoon with Laich, but she wanted to keep getting stronger so she could reclaim her land.

  "Are you sure?" Mira asked, her voice hoarse. "Without this, my Intian signal will leak. The Golden Angels Order could—"

  "The walls here are coated with three-meter-thick Black-Iron and tin," Kars interrupted, standing casually in the darkness, only visible by the glow of the tip of his rolled cigarette. "Not even a god can peek in here. Take it off. Your skin needs to breathe."

  Mira removed her left bracelet. Then the right one. She placed them into her own dimension pocket.

  When the cold metal came off her skin, Mira flinched. It felt like releasing a dam. The flow of Intian that had been forced to bend, narrow, and turn into 'Imagination' for a week, now exploded back into its original path.

  Mira's heart raced. The two 'Stars' on her chest spun wildly, celebrating their freedom. The air around Mira's body changed instantly. The brackish water near her feet hissed softly, thin steam beginning to rise.

  “Good,” Kars said. He stubbed out his cigarette on the stone wall. “You've been playing with Glass and Art. That's good for training the brain. But tonight, we train the muscles.”

  Kars snapped his fingers. A small purple gravity orb hovered above his head, casting a dim, eerie light.

  “Star Magic,” Kars began, circling Mira like a shark around its prey. “Ordinary people think it's just an explosion. Wrong. Stars are solid. Stars are heavy. And most importantly…”

  Kars stopped right in front of Mira, his face illuminated by a dim purple light.

  "...Stars is hot."

  "I know," Mira replied.

  "Do you still remember the basics of Light Style? Light Style isn’t Plasma that stings like electricity. It’s Light. Pure Light. Photons compressed to the point where they no longer illuminate, but burn."

  Kars pointed at Mira’s back.

  "Your task is simple. Manifest three orbs of Light. Don’t throw them. Don’t explode them. Keep them suspended so they float stationary behind your back. Like a satellite."

  "Just three light orbs?" Mira raised an eyebrow. "Sounds easy."

  Kars grinned. That smile didn’t promise anything good. "Go ahead and try, Princess."

  Mira closed her eyes. She took a deep breath, inhaling the scent of moss and salty water. She called her Intian. Not to her hands, but to her back. She imagined light. Bright. White.

  A blinding explosion of white light burst from her back. The cave room lit up brilliantly for a moment, hurting her eyes. But no ball formed. Just an uncontrolled flashbang.

  "Failed," Kars' voice sounded bored. "You made fireworks. I asked for the Sun."

  Mira growled. She tried again. This time, she restrained her energy. She tried to compress it. A ball of light the size of her fist formed behind her left shoulder. Its color was milky white.

  But a second later, the ball shook, hissed, and then went out like a candle blown by the wind.

  "Weak," commented Kars. "That's not Light Style. That's a cheap bulb. Its density is zero."

  "This is hard!" protested Mira, sweat starting to drip from her temples. "It's so difficult to keep it round!"

  "Because you're thinking of it as an 'object,'" Kars stepped forward. He touched Mira's shoulder. "Listen. Light Style is all about Compression. You take pure energy, and you press it until it has no choice but to stay put."

  Kars stepped back.

  "And to help you understand the concept of 'pressure'..." Kars raised his hand. A dark purple aura erupted from his body.

  "Gravity Style: 5x Weight."

  Mira fell to her knees. The stone floor beneath her cracked. It felt as if an elephant had suddenly sat on her shoulders. Her lungs were trapped. Her bones screamed. The gravity around Mira had increased fivefold.

  "Kars! What the hell—" Mira tried to get up, but her legs trembled violently.

  "Pressure, Mira!" Kars yelled, his voice cruelly echoing. "Stars are born from gravitational pressure! If you can't bear your own weight, how do you expect to carry three stars on your back?"

  Stolen story; please report.

  "Get up!" Kars bellowed. "And light it up, or you'll be crushed right there!"

  Mira bit her lip until it bled. This physical pain... it was familiar. It was more honest than a fake smile at a tea party. She forced one foot to step forward. Her thigh muscles felt like they were going to snap.

  Heat... I need heat to fight this weight…

  The energy inside Mira's chest surged, responding to the threat of gravity. Mira screamed without a sound. She pushed the Intian out through her back. Not as an explosion. But as a recoil.

  A high-pitched ringing filled the cave. Behind Mira's right shoulder, a point of light appeared. Small. Only the size of a marble. But its color wasn’t milky white. It was blinding white with orange edges.

  And its temperature...

  The water around Mira's feet began to boil. Bubbles rose to the surface. Hot steam surged, enveloping Mira in a sauna-like mist.

  "One," Kars counted coldly. He didn’t lower his gravity. "Two more."

  "You’re... crazy..." Mira hissed. Her back felt like it had a hot iron pressed to it. The ball of light burned the back of her shirt, leaving a growing charred hole.

  "Focus!" Kars commanded. "Don’t let the heat spread into the air! That’s wasteful! Pull the heat back into the ball! Make it solid!"

  Mira tried to follow the insane instruction. She imagined Kars's gravity not as an enemy, but as a mold. She used that heavy pressure to compact her light.

  The first ball expanded to the size of a tennis ball. Stable. The temperature was insane. Mira could smell her own hair starting to burn. The skin on her back stung, blistered from close-range radiation.

  Again. I need another.

  Mira roared. The second ball appears on the left shoulder. The sound of the ringing is getting louder, hurting the eardrums. The heat is doubled.

  The stepping stone on which Mira knelt began to change color. From gray to fiery red. The surrounding puddle has evaporated completely within a radius of two meters, leaving a cracked, dry mud.

  "Good," Kars' voice sounded a little impressed, but he was still ruthless. "One more. In the middle. On the spine."

  Mira felt that her consciousness was starting to blur. Dehydration strikes fast. This heat drained his body fluids in a matter of seconds. His eyes were glowing. I can't...

  "If you stop," Kars whispered, "Draven will catch you. He'll make you a battery again. He will suck this light until you become a dry dreg."

  Mira's eyes opened wide. Her pupils shrank. The amber color seemed to fade, revealing wild flashes of cyan and red beneath.

  NO!

  Mira straightened her back, fighting against the 5x gravity with pure rage. She didn’t care about the burning pain on her skin.

  A third orb formed right behind her neck. It was larger than the other two. The three spheres of light spun slowly, forming an inverted triangular formation.

  As the three orbs stabilized (resonance), the temperature inside the cave soared drastically. The moss on the cave walls dried up, then burned into black ash. Water dripped from the stalactites on the ceiling, hissing as it hit the floor.

  Mira stood there, surrounded by an aura of heat distortion that made her body look wavy. She was no longer a little girl. With three mini "stars" on her back, she looked like a goddess of destruction descending into the gutter.

  Kars took a step back. That heat... it was no joke. Even the Nebula barrier on Kars’s skin stung.

  "Enough!" Kars shouted. He snapped his fingers, canceling his gravity magic. "Mira! Turn it off! Now!"

  But Mira didn’t hear him. She was caught in the euphoria of power. The pain on her skin felt pleasurable. The weight on her back felt right. The three spheres shone brighter, pure white. The stone floor beneath Mira’s feet began to melt. Turning into molten lava.

  "Shit," Kars cursed.

  Kars didn’t run. He charged forward, breaking through the heat waves. His black coat began to smoke. His hair felt like it was about to catch fire.

  Kars arrived in front of Mira. He didn’t hit her. He placed both of his palms on Mira’s cheeks.

  "Mira!" Kars shouted, staring straight into the girl’s eyes. "Look at me! You are not Star! You are Human! Turn it off, or you’ll kill both of us!"

  Kars’ voice pierced through the fog of euphoria. Mira blinked. She saw Kars’ face drenched in sweat, his skin flushed from the heat.

  "Kars...?"

  "Take a deep breath," Kars commanded.

  Mira breathed shakily. She pulled back her "intent." Slowly, the high-pitched hum subsided. The three balls of light on her back shrank. Dimmed. From dazzling white, to orange, then red, and finally faded into smoke.

  As soon as the light disappeared, Mira collapsed.

  Kars caught her before her face hit the still-smoldering stone floor. He lifted the girl’s body, which felt extremely hot, like hugging an oven, and carried her while jumping to a still-wet and cool area.

  Kars laid Mira down in a safe spot. Mira was gasping, her chest rising and falling rapidly. The back of her shirt was completely burned, revealing skin that was a dull red and blistered in several places.

  Kars immediately took out a light blue potion bottle from his dimension pocket. He poured it onto Mira’s back. The cold liquid hissed as it touched the hot skin.

  "Argh..." Mira moaned.

  "Be quiet," Kars said, his tone firm, but his hands moved quickly and carefully to apply the potion. "You're stupid. But you made it."

  Mira tried to turn her head, her cheek pressed against the cold stone. "Three...?" she whispered weakly.

  "Yes. Three," Kars replied. He sat beside Mira, wiping the sweat from his own forehead. "Three High-Density Photonic Orbs. You turned this cave into a giant oven in ten seconds. Congratulations."

  Kars grabbed a bottle of water, helping Mira drink. Mira drained it in one greedy gulp.

  "It feels..." Mira whispered, her eyes staring at the dark cave ceiling. "It feels heavy. Like carrying the world."

  "That's the Light Style," Kars explained, lighting his cigarette again with a slightly trembling hand—the effect of adrenaline. "It's not an element for the weak. It's an element that demands total dominance. If you don't control it, it controls you."

  Kars took the Intian bracelets from Mira's bag. "Wear this again."

  Mira frowned. "Again?"

  "Your skin needs to heal. And you can't walk around with a leaking Intian aura like this."

  Kars fastened the bracelet onto Mira's limp wrist. The cold sensation returned. The wild Intian flow was locked once more. The three stars on her back were now just a memory and a stinging pain.

  Mira felt a sense of loss. But also relief.

  "You have the potential for Star Style," Kars murmured, blowing smoke upward. "Those three balls... if you can hold them for a minute, you can create a Triangle Beam. It can pierce the fortress walls."

  "One minute..." Mira laughed bitterly. "It felt like an hour just now."

  "That was only 15 seconds, Princess."

  Mira groaned in frustration. She buried her face in her arm. "I hate your training."

  "I know. That’s a compliment for me."

  Kars stood, then extended his hand. "Come on. We need to return before dawn. And you need to find an excuse for why your back looks like it just got sunburned in a volcanic crater."

  Mira accepted the offered hand. She stood up, her legs still wobbly, her back painfully sore. But when she looked back at the place where she had been standing... The stone floor still glowed dim red. And there was a pool of molten glass there—the stones melted from the heat of her body.

  She did that. She, Mira, the young princess from the south, melted stones just by standing there.

  "Kars," Mira called as they stumbled towards the stairs leading out.

  "What?"

  "Next time... teach me how to throw it."

  Kars grinned in the darkness. "Sure. After you learn how not to burn your own butt."

  The sound of their footsteps echoed away, leaving The Old Cistern now silent, yet its temperature was still ten degrees warmer than before, a silent witness to the birth of a little star underground.