Let us rewind two hours.
The gravity room was cold, but Khione was colder.
She stood alone in the center of the chamber, her training suit dark against the pale walls. The gravity setting was at four times normal—enough to press down on her shoulders, to make every breath a small effort. She did not adjust it. She welcomed the weight.
Around her, the room hummed with energy. The floor was reinforced steel, scarred by past battles. The walls shimmered with containment runes. And from the shadows at the edges, the golems emerged.
They came in pairs. First, two knight-type golems, their bodies forged from silver-blue metal, their swords coated in frost. The Law of Ice, but not her ice. Their ice was brittle, hungry, mindless. They charged.
Khione raised her wand. She did not speak. She did not need to.
