The convergence did not slow.
It did not hesitate.
It detonated.
The moment Kali stepped fully into the central convergence zone, the Abyssal Sector responded as if awakened from a thousand-year slumber. Ancient structures buried beneath layers of dead civilizations began to resonate. Faint runes ignited along fractured towers. The obsidian ground trembled, sending waves of pressure rolling across the ruins.
Above, the crimson sky twisted.
The battlefield had chosen its stage.
Kali stood still at the center of it.
His core rotated in deep, heavy cycles. The relic's power — the inheritance of the Abyss — was still fusing with his blood, bone, and soul. Every breath pulled in the planet's hostile energy and refined it into something denser, purer, more lethal.
He was no longer merely adapting.
He was evolving.
Movement erupted around him.
From every shattered avenue, from every collapsed spire, candidates poured toward the convergence. Some charged recklessly, eyes burning with ambition. Others advanced cautiously, weapons ready, their senses extended. Several powerful groups formed temporary alliances, while lone wolves prowled the outer edges, hunting opportunities.
None of them were weak.
None of them were here by accident.
And all of them felt the same thing:
The gravity of Kali's presence.
A blade of compressed light screamed through the air toward his throat.
Kali tilted his head.
The blade missed by centimeters and carved a nearby tower in half, molten stone raining down in a thunderous collapse.
He turned.
The attacker — a tall man with glowing crimson veins crawling across his skin — grinned, energy flaring violently around his body.
"So you're the one everyone's whispering about."
Kali moved.
The world snapped forward.
His fist struck the man's chest.
The sound was not impact.
It was detonation.
The attacker flew backward through three collapsed structures before skidding across molten stone, his body finally coming to rest in a crater of shattered obsidian.
Before Kali could even exhale, the convergence exploded into chaos.
Seven candidates attacked simultaneously.
Energy storms collided in midair. Blades screamed. Gravity compressed. The ruins shook as if the planet itself were screaming.
Kali entered the storm.
He weaved through blades and blasts, every movement tight, economical, merciless. He shattered one opponent's weapon with a single knuckle strike, crushed another's knee with a downward stomp, then drove his elbow through a third's spine.
A spear of void energy pierced his shoulder.
Pain flared like wildfire.
Kali grabbed the weapon and pulled the attacker into his knee.
The man folded. He did not rise again.
Blood streamed down Kali's arm.
His core burned brighter.
Across the battlefield, new pressures surfaced.
True elites.
Candidates who had survived long before the convergence.
One stood atop a fallen tower — a woman surrounded by floating black crystal blades, her silver eyes burning with cold calculation.
Another walked calmly through the chaos, space bending around him with every step, reality itself struggling to contain his presence.
Their gazes locked onto Kali.
The hunt had begun.
The Abyss Tightens
High above the planet's surface, inside the Federation observation vessel, alarms screamed.
"Energy density increasing."
"Multiple candidates exceeding projected combat thresholds."
"Kali Lin's output destabilizing the region."
A senior commander's eyes narrowed as he watched Kali's data streams spike.
"Deploy monitoring drones. All of them."
Back in the ruins, Kali felt the shift.
The pressure.
The pull.
The hunger of the battlefield itself.
The Abyss was no longer merely watching him.
It was calling him.
Three candidates charged together — a blade user, a heavy gravity manipulator, and a caster surrounded by floating sigils.
Kali inhaled slowly.
He stepped forward.
The blade user struck first.
Kali slipped inside the arc and crushed the man's wrist. The blade fell. Kali's knee followed, folding ribs inward.
The gravity manipulator unleashed his field.
The world around Kali collapsed downward.
Stone cracked. Air screamed.
Kali bent, muscles screaming — then he pushed.
His core flared.
The gravity field shattered like glass.
The caster screamed and unleashed a storm of sigils.
Kali vanished.
He reappeared inside the storm and drove his fist straight through the caster's chest.
The man collapsed without sound.
Silence rippled outward.
More eyes turned.
More enemies closed in.
Kali did not retreat.
Foundations of Power
The battles stretched on.
Minute by minute.
Strike by strike.
Blood coated Kali's hands. His armor fractured in half a dozen places. His breathing grew heavy.
But his core…
His core was changing.
Each fight compressed the energy inside him into tighter layers. The relic's inheritance was no longer raw power — it was becoming structure.
Control.
Depth.
He was laying the foundation for something far greater.
Then the ground split open.
A monstrous creature tore free from the ruins — a hybrid of metal and bone, its body engraved with ancient sigils, its eyes burning with Abyssal fire.
An Abyssal Warden.
The surrounding candidates scattered in terror.
Kali stood his ground.
The Warden roared and charged.
Kali met it head-on.
Their collision shattered the street. Shockwaves rolled across the convergence zone, sending debris into the crimson sky.
Kali drove his fist into the creature's core.
Energy erupted.
The Warden screamed as its body collapsed inward, detonating in a storm of black fire.
Kali staggered, chest heaving.
But he was still standing.
The battlefield fell silent.
And then…
The elites began to move.
The First True Clash
The woman with silver eyes descended from her tower, her black crystal blades spinning slowly around her.
The space-walker approached from the opposite direction, reality warping with every step.
Dozens of other powerful candidates formed a widening circle.
They were no longer attacking blindly.
They were hunting him.
Kali lifted his gaze.
He felt the convergence tighten around his existence.
The Abyss wanted to know.
Who was the strongest?
His core roared.
His blood sang.
And for the first time since stepping onto the Selection Grounds, Kali smiled.
The Abyss War had truly begun.
And Kali Lin…
had become its center.
Cliffhanger End
High above, the commander whispered:
"Now we see his real potential."
Kali took one step forward.
And the entire battlefield surged toward him.