Primordial Heir: Nine Stars

The smartphone vibrated in Nero’s hand as he settled into his dorm room. The familiar weight of it, the soft glow of the screen, the simple act of texting—it was normal. Comfortable. A small piece of ordinary life after days of chaos and blood and revelation.

He typed quickly, fingers moving without thought.

What are you doing, babe.

He stared at the screen, waiting. The room was quiet around him, his few belongings neatly stored, the bed waiting. Outside his window, the academy grounds stretched in peaceful darkness.

The phone buzzed. A shower emoji. Simple, cute, perfectly Khione.

Nero grinned. His thumbs moved again.

Want me to join?

He could almost see her reaction—the slight lift of one elegant eyebrow, the faint twitch at the corner of her lips that was her version of a laugh. The phone buzzed again. Rolling eyes emoji.

Hahaha! Well, what are your plans for tomorrow?

A pause. Then:

Training. And you?

Same as well.

They traded messages for a few more minutes. Banalities, really. What they might eat for breakfast. Whether the academy’s coffee was better than the inn’s. Small things. Normal things. The kind of conversation that mattered not for its content but for its existence—the simple comfort of staying connected, of knowing the other was there.

Finally:

Good night, Ner.

Good night, Ellie.

He smiled at the nickname, knowing it would make her roll her eyes if she were here. Then he set the phone aside and reached for the small wooden box on his nightstand.

The reward. Two thousand credits—a fortune for a cadet—and a Heart Clearing Pill.

He opened the box, studying the pill inside. It was small, unremarkable, pale white like a pearl. But the energy it held was significant. He could feel it even through the container—a gentle warmth, a promise of purification.

This pill cleans impurities from the body, he thought, recalling the description. For both knights and mages. It purifies internal prana. It slightly increases core capacity.

He closed the box. He didn’t need it. His physical strength was already beyond typical Purple Knight level. His cores were larger, purer, more powerful than they should be. The pill would do nothing for him.

But Khione... Khione could use it.

He set the box aside and picked up his phone again. The group chat was active—Lux, Adam, Blake all trading messages about their own missions, their own rewards, their own plans.

He typed a quick message congratulating them, then set the phone down for good.

Sleep came quickly. Deep and dreamless, for once. No visions. No gray women. No warnings. Just rest, pure and simple which he missed.

°°°

The morning light was pale and cool when Nero woke. He moved through his routine automatically—,morning training, washing, dressing, eating a quick breakfast from the supplies in his room. His body hummed with energy, the Earth law’s vitality making itself felt in every cell.

He checked his phone. A message from Khione: Starting training, thank you for the pill, Ner. See you tonight.

He smiled and typed back: Good luck. Don’t freeze yourself. (Laugh emoji)

Then he left his dorm and walked toward the training facilities.

The gravity room was one of the academy’s most expensive resources. Two hundred credits for ten hours—a huge expense, but worth it. He had the points now, and he intended to use them.

The room itself was unremarkable from the outside—just another door in a long corridor of doors. But inside, it was a different world. A circular chamber, perhaps thirty meters across, with walls of smooth, reinforced metal. The floor was a dark, dense material designed to withstand enormous pressure. Control panels lined one wall, glowing with soft lights.

Nero stepped inside and sealed the door behind him. He approached the controls and began inputting settings.

The gravity generator hummed to life like a starving beast.

Two times normal gravity pressed down on him. He barely noticed. Three times. Still nothing. Four times. His muscles tightened slightly. Five times. Now he felt it—the weight, the pressure, the constant demand on every fiber of his body.

He set it at eight times normal gravity and stepped to the center of the room.

For ten hours, he would train. Not with his laws, not with his sword, but with his body. Pure physical conditioning under crushing weight. The Earth law had made him strong, but strength needed to be forged, tempered, shaped into something useful, in the most dreadful tool that ever exist.

He began with simple stretches, then moved to calisthenics. Push-ups. Squats. Lunges. Each movement required enormous effort, every muscle screaming under the pressure. Sweat poured from him within minutes. His breathing grew heavy, labored.

But he didn’t stop. He couldn’t stop.

The storm was coming. He had to be ready to swept through it, enjoy the chaos.

°°°

Across the academy, in a different sector entirely, Khione stood before another door.

Five hundred credits. An enormous expense, nearly a quarter of her reward. But worth it.

The door opened onto a transport platform, and she stepped through.

The world that materialized around her was breathtaking.

Ice. Endless ice, stretching in every direction under a pale, cloudless sky. The ground was a vast plain of snow and frozen ridges, glittering with a billion tiny crystals that caught the light and scattered it in rainbows. In the distance, mountains rose—not the dark, rocky peaks of normal ranges, but sheer cliffs of blue-white ice, their tops lost in the haze.

The air was cold. Not the damp cold of winter, but a dry, pure cold that felt clean in the lungs. It was perfect. It was hers.

And the prana—the ambient energy here was thick, abundant, almost liquid in its richness. This pocket world, entirely covered in ice and snow, had been carefully cultivated to maximize its affinity for Ice mages. Every breath she took drew power into her core.

Khione stood still for a long moment, simply breathing, letting the cold seep into her skin, letting the world welcome her.

Then she began to walk, searching for the right spot. Somewhere deep in the ice fields, far from the entrance, where she could be truly alone with her training.

The pressure was on her now. Nero had surpassed her. Her man, her partner, the one she had vowed to stand beside—he had leaped ahead, reaching heights she couldn’t yet touch. It stung, more than she wanted to admit let be honest.

But she was Khione Undine. The Ice Queen. She would not be left behind.

She found her spot—a frozen valley between two massive ice ridges, sheltered from any wandering creatures, hidden from casual view. She sat cross-legged on the snow, feeling its cold seep through her training clothes, and closed her eyes.

The training would begin soon. Hours of meditation, of spell practice, of pushing her limits until she either broke through or collapsed.

But for now, just for a moment, she allowed herself to simply be here. In this beautiful, frozen world. Alone with her thoughts and her goal she must achieve.

I will catch up, she promised silently. I will be worthy of standing beside you.

The ice around her seemed to hum in agreement.