Time passed differently in that world…
As if days were not measured by sunrise and sunset, but by the body's ability to endure.
Four full months slipped by in silence.
During them, Ares moved from one place to another inside that distorted world, where gravity was not a fixed law… but a shifting mood.
There were regions where gravity was so terrifying that rocks flattened like dough.
Others… where it almost disappeared, so a person would take a step and find himself suspended, his body desperately searching for a sense of direction.
Places even stranger…
Their gravity changed without warning.
A moment of calm…
Then suddenly—
A pressure that crushed even the air itself.
In the midst of all this, Ares had no choice.
He had to learn.
To feel gravity… not as an external force, but as a language.
A harsh language… but an honest one.
The system's voice never left him:
[The host's understanding of gravity is increasing.]
[Gravity Core structure formation at 5%.]
Pain became a companion.
Falling, suffocation, torn muscles…
Things that, over time, turned into ordinary details.
Then after two more months:
[Gravity Core structure formation at 45%.]
[The host's understanding of gravity is increasing.]
His body was no longer the body of an ordinary child.
It was adapting…
At a frightening pace.
Four months passed.
[Gravity Core structure formation at 90%.]
Even the Ancestor began to look at him longer at times…
Those brief looks that could not be explained.
Then the final month came.
A month that felt as if the entire world was holding its breath.
[Gravity Core structure formation at 99%.]
[The host's understanding of gravity is increasing.]
[The host is at a critical moment… an ideal environment is required to form the Gravity Core.]
Ares raised his head toward the Ancestor.
His features were still childish…
But his eyes were no longer so.
He spoke in a broken voice, the words stumbling on his small tongue:
"I want… a place… stranger."
The Ancestor stared at him for a long time.
This was not a look of evaluation…
But the look of a reader turning the final page of a mysterious book.
Then he murmured:
"Hmm… it seems something strange is forming inside you.
Something tied to gravity… and it has reached a critical point."
And for the first time in a long while—
He smiled.
A faint smile…
But the glint that passed through his eyes was not comforting.
He said calmly:
"I know the right place."
Ares did not feel the movement.
He did not see a transition.
Only… the world changed.
The ground vanished.
The sky vanished.
All that remained…
Was red.
A vast world of magma stretched in every direction, like an ocean without shores.
Glowing currents moved slowly, like the blood of a giant being sleeping beneath the cosmic crust.
And yet…
He felt no heat.
No burning.
No pain.
As if the laws of matter themselves had stopped working here.
Then he realized that he… was floating.
His body was drawn toward a distant point — a massive glowing mass, compressed in a way that made the space around it appear bent.
Energy.
Magma.
Metals.
All crushed into each other until they lost their identity.
Before he could think—
The mass opened.
And he was pulled inside.
The Ancestor's voice rang inside his mind, calm as always:
"Boy… I have brought you to the heart of this world.
Here, where gravity and pressure reach their peak.
I will leave you for three days… then we depart.
Try not to die.
Happy training."
Then…
His presence disappeared.
In the next instant—
The world collapsed onto Ares.
It was not a pressure pushing him downward.
It was pressure coming from every direction.
Front.
Back.
Inside.
Even the space between his cells felt as if it were being squeezed.
Blood flowed from his mouth and nose… then from his ears… then from his eyes.
His consciousness trembled.
His very soul felt as if a giant hammer had fallen upon it.
And yet…
His body did not tear apart.
Why?
Even the system seemed confused.
[The gravity here is enormous — beyond the host's capacity. Escape immediately.]
[Warning.]
[Warning.]
[The host is in imminent danger… calculating.]
The alerts came like a storm.
[The host is in imminent danger.]
[The host is in imminent danger.]
His vision faded.
His thoughts fragmented.
Then—
[Calculating… Calculating… Calculating…]
[The only way to survive: control the energy and direct the gravity toward the Gravity Core.]
[Please execute immediately.]
But Ares…
Could no longer even understand the words.
[The host is unable to respond.]
[Transferring meaning directly.]
Suddenly—
A flood of knowledge exploded inside his consciousness.
They were not words.
But a primal sensation…
As if an ancient instinct had awakened.
His body moved without awareness.
He gathered the pressure.
He did not resist it…
He allowed it in.
Little by little… it began to flow into his depths.
Toward that seed that had waited so long for this moment.
Hours passed.
Or… days?
Time no longer made sense inside that crushing heart.
There was only:
Pain…
Then pain…
Then something forming within the pain.
Until—
Everything suddenly fell silent.
After three days…
Without him knowing when that immense pressure disappeared,
The Ancestor stood before him once again.
Ares's body was covered in dried blood, his breaths broken, his consciousness hanging by a thin thread.
He did not see the Ancestor.
He did not see the world.
The only thing he heard… was the system's whisper:
[Congratulations, Host… you have successfully formed the Gravity Core.]
His body collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
But within his Sea of Consciousness…
Beside the old energy core—
A new core had formed.
Small.
Quiet.
And yet…
It radiated a pressure that made the space around it bend in silence.
As if a dark star…
Had been born there.