As Kenji’s finger continued its slow approach toward Archie, the field seemed to shrink around them.

No one breathed.

The initiates were frozen in place, eyes locked on that single pale finger hovering inches from Archie’s chest. The memory of the tree’s erasure still burned behind their eyes. Levon felt his heartbeat pounding in his throat, each pulse louder than the last, as if his body was bracing for something it could not name.

Then Kenji moved.

Without warning, he lifted his right foot and stomped it into the ground.

The impact was silent.

For a fraction of a second, nothing happened.

Then the world detonated.

A violent surge of vibration exploded outward from Kenji’s foot, rippling through the field like a shockwave made of soundless thunder. The grass flattened instantly, not bending but collapsing as if crushed by invisible weight. The air itself seemed to shudder.

The vibration tore through the initiates.

Levon screamed as it hit him.

The force did not strike from the outside. It erupted inside his body, rattling his bones, shaking his teeth, turning his muscles into screaming wires of pain. His vision blurred white as every nerve ignited at once. It felt as though something deep within him was being shaken awake violently, painfully, without mercy.

He collapsed to his knees along with everyone else.

Cries filled the field. Some sharp and panicked. Others raw and animal. Hands clawed at the grass, fingers digging into soil as bodies trembled uncontrollably

Warda crumpled beside him, her scream raw and broken, her body folding inward as if trying to escape itself. Her breath came in choking gasps that did nothing to ease the agony tearing through her.

Xin slammed down onto his knees with a hoarse shout, hands clawing at the grass as his body shook uncontrollably. His jaw broke open in a scream he could not stop.

Malinda shrieked and fell backward, her voice cracking as the vibration ripped through her chest and skull. Her hands spasmed uselessly, fingers digging into the ground as her body trembled violently.

Zachery dropped hard, breath ripped from his lungs, his scream tearing out of him late and panicked. His body locked up, muscles seizing as pain overwhelmed every thought he had ever trusted.

Parvati screamed like the rest of them.

Any discipline she had vanished the moment the vibration struck. Her body folded, hands shaking, breath coming in broken sobs as pain consumed her completely.

Artorias went down just as hard.

Whatever strength or fury lived in him was crushed instantly. He collapsed to the ground with a guttural cry, his body jerking violently as the vibration tore through him without mercy. There was no resistance. No defiance. Only agony.

Archie screamed the loudest.

The sound ripped out of him without control as pain exploded behind his eyes and down his spine. His body folded forward in the chair, vision bleaching white, thoughts shattering into nothing. There was no humor. No bravado. No thought at all. Only the overwhelming certainty that this was death.

Every initiate was on the ground now.

Knees buried in soil. Hands clawing at grass. Bodies convulsing in perfect, horrifying unison as the vibration continued. The pain did not discriminate. It did not test. It did not measure worth.

It simply crushed them all.

Levon felt his hearing collapse into ringing silence. His vision narrowed. His sense of self began to dissolve under the weight of it.

This is it, he thought dimly. This is what dying feels like.

Then, just as suddenly as it had begun, the vibration stopped.

The pain did not disappear all at once.

It loosened its grip slowly, reluctantly, as if whatever had torn through them was retreating but unwilling to let go completely. Screams dissolved into choking gasps. Bodies trembled on the ground, muscles spasming as sensation returned in uneven waves.

Archie was the first to open his eyes.

At first, he thought he was blind.

Everything was washed in pale white, his vision swimming as if he were underwater. His ears rang sharply, a high pitched whine drilling through his skull. He tried to breathe and realized he had been holding his breath far too long. Air tore back into his lungs in a burning gasp.

I’m alive.

The thought startled him.

His hands were clenched so tightly his fingers ached. When he forced them open, they shook uncontrollably. His heart hammered so violently he was certain the others could hear it. For the first time since arriving in Xacodia, the constant humor that usually bubbled up in his mind was gone. There was no joke to reach for. No mask to hide behind.

Only raw fear and the echo of pain.

He lifted his head slowly.

Kenji stood directly in front of him.

Archie froze.

Kenji’s finger was pressed against his forehead.

Archie waited for erasure.

Nothing happened.

No pressure. No collapse. No tearing sensation. Instead, warmth spread outward from the point of contact, deep and steady. Not heat. Not pain. Something calm and vast, flowing behind his eyes, down his spine, into his chest. It felt like recognition rather than force. Like something long dormant had finally been acknowledged.

Archie swallowed hard.

A sharp gasp pulled his attention sideways.

Levon was staring at him. Not at his face, but around it.

“What the hell…” Malinda whispered.

Archie turned his head instinctively, following their gazes.

And froze.

Levon and the others were glowing.

Not brightly. Not blindingly. A faint, translucent outline clung to their body, tracing the shape of their shoulders, arms and the rest of their body It pulsed gently, in rhythm with their breathing.

Archie’s eyes widened.

“They’re all glowing”

He looked down at his own hands.

The glow was there.

It clung to his fingers and palms, translucent and fluid, responding faintly as his hands trembled. It did not feel foreign. It felt integrated, as if it had always been there and he was only now allowed to see it.

His pulse spiked.

He lifted his hands closer to his face, staring, turning them slightly. The glow followed every movement.

Kenji withdrew his finger.

Archie felt the contact end, but the warmth remained.

“Congratulations,” Kenji said, his voice calm, steady, as if nothing extraordinary had just occurred. “All of your Vitria are fully awakened.”

The words took a moment to register.

Fully awakened.

He turned away from Archie and walked back toward his original position, boots pressing softly into the grass that had already begun to rise again. “Go back to your seat,” he said, not unkindly.

Archie stared at his hands for a second longer, blinking rapidly, then obeyed. His movements were slow, unsteady, as if he were learning how to inhabit his body again. One by one, the others followed suit, returning to their chairs in silence, fear replaced by stunned disbelief.

Levon sat down heavily, his pulse still racing. The field felt different now. Lighter. Responsive. As if it were aware of them.

Kenji faced them once more.

“What you are feeling right now,” he said, “is full Vitria running through your body.”

He let the words settle.

“As of this moment, you are Vitria users.”

A murmur rippled through the group, subdued and uncertain.

“Which means,” Kenji continued, “that contact with an active Vitria item, or another awakened user, will no longer crush you the way it crushed that tree.”

He paused, his eyes scanning their faces.

“And I can no longer hear your thoughts.”

Levon felt a strange sense of relief at that.

“Your Vitria now blocks the frequency of mine,” Kenji said. “The resonance that allowed me to intrude is no longer compatible. You are no longer open systems.”

He gestured faintly with his hand, the same one that had erased the tree. The glow around his fingers pulsed once, then stabilized.

“You are no longer raw material,” he said. “You are participants.”

Silence followed.

Not fearful this time. Heavy. Charged.

Levon leaned back slightly in his chair, staring at the faint glow still clinging to his hands. His body felt different. Grounded. Alive in a way it had never been before.

Whatever they had crossed, there was no going back.