[Celestial Academy — Administrative Wing Corridor — 10:47 AM]

Alex walked toward Davan.

Each step cost more than the last — not from physical damage but from F5’s pressure increasing with every meter he closed. The Dominion field wasn’t a strike. It was cumulative weight. Like trying to walk against a current you couldn’t see.

[F5 — Dominion Field — active radius 8m]

[F1: -35% stats]

[F4: -50% stats under sustained suppression]

[Corruption: 89%]

Behind him, Grim held off the six Inquisitors.

Grim buying him time.

The sound of bone against armor, of the double‑bladed scythe sweeping corridors, of Form 2/7’s Death Aura making the lower‑level ones hesitate before every move.

Alex was using it to think.

---

*Why is he so strong?*

The question arrived on its own as he evaluated Davan six meters away.

Twenty minutes with F5 and he already operated as if he’d had it for months. The Dominion field responding to his intentions before he articulated them. The suppression was directed with a precision that had taken Alex weeks to develop with F1.

*When I got Grim, I was a student. No real level. No combat training. Nothing but three years of theoretical academy and the certainty that that day was going to change something.*

*Davan was twenty‑two and an Inquisitor in training under Cael — the most demanding level‑89 in the Temple.*

Years of physical and magical training.

A base level already in the range where most adventurers stopped growing.

F5 hadn’t found an empty vessel.

It had found one already formed, already trained, already calibrated for combat.

*F5 didn’t have to build anything. It just had to orient it.*

Davan fired.

[F5 — Area Suppression — 5m radius]

Alex felt the impact on both Fragments simultaneously — F1 yielding on the harvest plane, F4 yielding on the plane between life and death.

He activated [Shadow Step] instinctively.

He appeared three meters to Davan’s left flank — the weakest angle according to what F1 could still read.

[Blood Weapon — crimson sword]

Davan had already turned.

The necklace detected Alex’s intentions before Shadow Step finished. It wasn’t precognition — it was that Dominion read the plane the same way the Core did, and when two Fragments read the same plane, the one that arrived first had the advantage.

F5 had arrived in the corridor first.

The sword connected with Davan’s forearm.

[Davan HP: X → X-1,800]

Less than before.

F5 learning to distribute suppression — not crushing F1 completely, but reducing its output just enough that strikes landed at half what they should have.

Davan counterattacked with his free fist.

No skill.

No magic.

Just an Inquisitor’s level 68.

[Alex HP: 409,800 → 398,200]

[Corruption: 89% → 91%]

Alex hit the opposite wall.

---

He stayed there for a second.

Corruption at 91% pushing from inside with an urgency that was no longer a whisper.

F1 and F4 pushing together, coordinated in this even if in nothing else, because both wanted the same result.

*Let us. We can end this.*

Alex closed his eyes.

To concentrate and think.

*Davan is strong because he already was before F5. I was weak when I got Grim. A student with nothing special about me.*

The corridor behind him. Grim holding off the six Inquisitors, the sound of real combat, the weight of what was happening in the entire Academy while Alex was here against a wall with his eyes closed.

*But that was before.*

Raven in the side corridor holding position with Army of Bones against numbers that weren’t reasonable.

Emily somewhere in the Academy.

Maya calculating routes, contingencies to reach him.

*I trained. I evolved. I failed, got up, failed again, and got up again. I survived Matthias. I survived the Catacombs. I survived the level where the Harvester took control of my body and I still pushed back.*

*I have those four girls who care about me.*

*And if I fall here, if the Fragments consume me in this corridor in front of a twenty‑two‑year‑old who’s had his for twenty minutes, then the hope they have in me amounts to nothing.*

He opened his eyes.

---

"Fragment 1." Quietly. To himself or to F1 — there was no difference at this level of corruption. "Fragment 4." A pause. "Even if you don’t want to, this time you’re going to have to listen to me."

*I’m not going to let you take control.*

*But I’m not going to ignore you either.*

*This time we work as a team.*

F1 responded with recognition — the Core processing that the bearer wasn’t yielding but asking for collaboration.

F4 responded differently. Slower. Still suppressed by F5, still under active interference. But when Alex stopped pushing it back and deliberately invited it forward, F4 found a different angle to operate through.

Through F1.

*Two conversations in the same language.*

[F1 + F4 — Partial Synchronization — active]

[Mode: Fragment Synergy]

[Corruption: 91% — stable, not increasing]

[F1: +15% base output]

[F4: recovering 30% effectiveness via F1 as channel]

---

Alex pushed off the wall.

Davan saw him coming, and the necklace pulsed — preparing the suppression that had worked three times already.

[F5 — Directed Suppression — oriented at F1]

Alex didn’t use F1 as the entry point.

He used F4 channeled through F1 — the plane between life and death opening not outward but inside the Dominion field, seeking the space where F5 had no coverage.

F5’s suppression passed over Alex.

Over F1. Which was the channel, not the source.

The source was in F4, three layers deeper, operating on the plane where F5 had the blind spot.

Davan felt the difference half a second too late.

[Blood Weapon — double — crimson sword and chain]

The sword from the front. The chain from below, using the plane F4 had opened to materialize it.

[Davan HP: X-1,800 → X-4,600]

Davan stepped back. His first real retreat since putting on the necklace.

The Dominion field fluctuated — it didn’t fall, but it fluctuated.

A second of instability while F5 recalibrated against an attack mechanic it hadn’t processed before.

Alex didn’t wait for it to recalibrate.

[Shadow Step — into the fluctuation radius]

He appeared one meter from Davan.

[Necrotic Burst — channeled via F4 → F1]

Not the standard version. F4 amplifying the impact plane before F1 launched it, turning the Burst into something that struck both the physical plane and the spiritual plane at the same time.

BOOM.

[Davan HP: X-4,600 → X-9,200]

Davan flew backward four meters.

He landed on his feet — F5 compensating, Dominion absorbing part of the impact by distributing it through the field.

But his knees gave way a centimeter before he stabilized.

---

Cael from the side of the corridor, still under F5’s partial suppression, watching the exchange.

*The F1 bearer just changed mechanics in real time under 91% corruption.*

*Without losing control.*

*That wasn’t in any report the Temple had on Fragment 1.*

Davan looking at Alex.

The Inquisitor‑in‑training’s expression changing for the first time since putting on the necklace.

"That shouldn’t be possible." Davan. "F4 was suppressed."

"It was." Alex holding the crimson sword. "I stopped suppressing it."

"Why?"

"Because working against your own tools is a waste of time."

The necklace glowed.

F5 reorienting — no longer suppressing F4 on the plane between life and death. Now trying to cut the channel between F1 and F4. Attacking the synchronization instead of the individual Fragments.

[F5 — F1↔F4 Channel Suppression]

[Effectiveness: 40% — synchronization partially resisted by Core nature]

Alex felt the difference. The channel thinned. It didn’t cut.

Davan advanced — the Dominion field compressing toward the center, concentrating all suppression into a three‑meter radius around him instead of the previous eight. Less coverage. Higher intensity.

[F5 — Concentrated mode]

[Suppression in 3m radius: F1 -55%, F4 -45%]

Harder inside. More space outside.

*He’s learning.*

Alex evaluated the radius. Three meters of maximum suppression versus eight meters of moderate suppression.

He chose inside.

[Shadow Step — directly into the concentrated radius]

The suppression impact hit like a physical blow — both Fragments yielding under the intensity, the channel thinning further.

But Alex was already inside Davan’s guard.

Twenty centimeters apart.

Too close for F5 to use area suppression without affecting itself.

[Blood Weapon — dagger — direct contact point]

[Davan HP: X-9,200 → X-13,800]

[Soul Rend — channeled — soul damage]

F5 roared — not with sound, with pressure. The Dominion field exploding outward from Davan as an emergency response, trying to create distance between them.

Alex flew three meters back.

Davan flew two meters in the opposite direction.

Both standing.

Both damaged.

Both evaluating.

[Alex HP: 398,200 → 371,600]

[Corruption: 91% — stable]

[Davan HP: X-13,800]

---

Grim behind Alex.

The six Inquisitors contained — not eliminated, contained. Three with active [Soul Prison], suspended on the plane between life and death without active consciousness. Three more retreating from the Death Aura.

**"How long can you maintain the synchronization?"**

"I don’t know." Alex without taking his eyes off Davan. "First time trying it like this."

**"Good to know."**

"Very good."

Davan steadied himself.

The necklace on his neck with a different light than at the start — colder, more settled, as if F5 had stopped learning and was now operating from something it already knew.

"You’re stronger than I calculated," said Davan. Without rage. With the direct evaluation of someone trained to analyze combat.

"So are you."

"So?"

Alex held the crimson sword.

F1 and F4 operating in channel. Corruption at 91% stable because both Fragments were working *with* him instead of against him, and that was enough difference for the threshold to stop climbing.

"So we continue."