Oblivion's Throne-Chapter 77: Not Enough

The training hall was silent, save for the rhythmic hum of Orion's breathing. The air was crisp with the lingering cold of the pre-dawn hours, the artificial lighting dim and muted, casting elongated shadows that swayed with his movements. The space felt vast, empty, yet suffocating all the same—the weight of the vision still clung to him.

His body felt wrong. Disconnected. He was present, but somehow, his limbs did not feel his own. Every breath came half a second too late, his heartbeat thrummed out of sync with the rest of him. His stance, usually second nature, felt as if it belonged to someone else entirely. A ghost in his own skin.

Yet his mind was sharper than ever.

Orion shut his eyes, exhaling slowly. He could still see it. Every movement, every sequence, burned into the back of his mind. His body still remembered the pain—the brutal efficiency of his opponent, the raw hopelessness of trying to fight a predator who was leagues beyond him. He had been crushed, torn apart, humiliated.

And yet...

He had moved differently. Fought differently. His own style had evolved by watching that battle. Techniques he had never used before had emerged from him, as if drawn forth from some untapped reservoir of instinct. The way his feet had shifted, the precision in his strikes—he had never learned those movements.

A ripple of awareness coursed through him as his weight adjusted on instinct. His posture changed—lower, more fluid. His footing, which had once been the foundation of his technique, morphed into something sharper, more elusive. It was still Wraith Style, but... different. More refined. More dangerous.

His body adjusted without thought. His balance was lighter, more reactive. Not a static stance, but a flowing rhythm. It was as if he had spent years perfecting this form.

Orion exhaled, shifting forward. The spear spun through his hands, tracing an arc in the air as he moved. The Dance of the Wraith.

It was no longer just a style—it was an unfolding rhythm, a constant motion. His spear became a phantom, flickering in and out of space, unpredictable and untouchable. Each step flowed into the next seamlessly, almost as if he were responding to an opponent that wasn't there.

He struck forward—aggression surging through his core.

Wraith's Wrath.

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A single, decisive movement. Fast. Brutal. Absolute.

His hands trembled slightly as he lowered his spear.

How could he explain this? How could he walk up to Varun and say, "I developed three new techniques in my sleep."

Then his gaze fell to the small locket resting on the bench.

Rising from his seat, he made his way to his private quarters, the soft hiss of the doors sealing behind him.

The room was still, illuminated only by the dim glow of his datapad as he activated the ACS. If there was any way to dissect and master the movements he had witnessed, it would be through this system.

Orion exhaled slowly as the neural interface linked to his mind, the faint hum of the Ares Combat Simulator filling the silence. Fighters used this system to refine techniques, perfect strategies.

But this wasn't where he needed to be right now.

This was the future if he did nothing. If he didn't grow fast enough. Strong enough.

A prompt flickered in his vision.

"Do you wish to analyze and integrate movement patterns?"

His hands clenched into fists.

Then his jaw tightened.

"Yes."

The simulator pulsed as his movements were broken down into data—footwork patterns, strike angles, evasive maneuvers. Every minute detail dissected, translated into something Orion could learn.

Orion forced himself to watch, to memorize. Every movement, every shift in weight, every slight nuance. The way he flowed with impossible grace, weaving destruction into a dance of inevitability.

His fingers twitched as he disconnected from the simulator, the data lingering in his mind like an echo. He needed space to think, to analyze every movement with precision. The moment the sequence started, the world around him shifted. His own holographic form appeared, moving with the familiar grace of his Wraith Style. And then—

Orion exhaled sharply, the simulator's interface fading from his vision as he closed the program. The data was being replayed in his mind now—every movement, every flaw, every lesson.

Orion's mind raced as he considered his next move. The academy was strict—cadets had limited access to records, and he had no direct way to search for the two figures from his vision. But that didn't mean he was out of options. If they were meant to be here, he would find them. He had to.

The chubby boy. The petite girl.

They had been there, in his vision. They had died there.

He had never met them.

Orion's fingers tapped impatiently against the console as he scrolled through file after file. The system filtered names by age, physical build, combat aptitude—anything that could match even a fraction of what he had seen.

Nothing.

His jaw tightened.

No matches.

If they were meant to be here, then they had to be somewhere in the academy, or they would be soon.

Hours passed. Orion barely noticed. His mind burned through possibility after possibility.

New recruits? Not yet.

Transfers? None matched.

Unofficial trainees? No records.

Finally, Orion leaned back in his chair, exhaling through clenched teeth.

And when they arrived, he would find them. He would train them, prepare them—make sure they wouldn't die like they had in his vision.

If Orion had to guess, this was the first-year mission. That meant it was designed as an initial proving ground, a controlled battlefield meant to test cadets at their most unrefined state.

Since he was enrolling in the first trial earlier than his age group, his second trial would be in two years. That put him on an accelerated track, meaning his second and final trial would be sooner than most. By his calculations, that left him anywhere from three to three and a half years to prepare. Time that would either make him or destroy him. And from what he had seen in his vision, that time was already running out.

Orion sat alone in his room, bathed in the cold glow of his datapad, but his mind was elsewhere.

The locket.

He had never thought much of it before. It had always been there—a simple gift from his mother on his fifth birthday. A keepsake. A reminder.

But now?

Now he wasn't sure.

His mind replayed the moment from the vision—the way it had vibrated against his chest, as if something inside it had... responded.

It had to be tied to the Zey'rans.

His mother's family. A family built on genetic research, on evolution itself.

The family that had worked alongside his own to create the Pythia Trials.

Perhaps it was tied to Pythia?

He should ask her.

Orion set the locket down on the bedside table, staring at it for a long moment before forcing himself to lie back.

He had spent hours in the simulator, memorizing every shift, every strike, every mistake. Every failure.

He had seen his own techniques—his Wraith Style—elevated beyond what he thought was possible.

Because if his vision had shown him anything, it was that he wasn't strong enough. Not yet.