The Leap of Faith

The Ascendance Platform floated a thousand feet in the air, a disc of white marble hovering above the clouds. The entire Academy was gathered below to watch the Sect Leader’s daughter ascend.

Sera stood in the center of the rune circle. Her father stood before her, chanting. The air grew heavy.

Sera could feel her life force being tugged at. Threads of light were drifting from her skin into her father’s chest.

"Accept your destiny, Seraphina," Lin intoned. "Become the foundation of my power."

Sera looked at him. She looked at the crowd below.

"No," she said.

Lin paused. "What?"

Sera reached up and tore the ceremonial headdress from her hair. "I said no."

She channeled her Qi. Not the gentle, flowing river she had been taught. She channeled the chaotic, fiery rhythm she had learned from Ren.

She stomped her foot. The rune circle cracked.

"Insolent child!" Lin roared, raising his hand. "Restrain her!"

Sera didn't fight him. She turned and ran.

She ran straight for the edge of the floating platform.

"She's going to jump!" someone screamed from the crowd.

Sera didn't hesitate. She dove off the edge of the world.

She fell through the clouds, the wind tearing at her robes. She plummeted past the Jade Courts, past the classrooms, past the Outer Barracks.

She was aiming for the dark fissure in the earth below. The entrance to the Abyss Prison.

As she fell, she focused on Ren. She focused on the love that terrified her.

* Find him.*

Her will slammed into the dormant remnants of the System code in her soul.

**[System Rebooting...]**

**[Source: True Love Detected.]**

**[Limiters Removed. God Mode: Engaged.]**

A burst of golden wings erupted from Sera’s back—pure energy. She pulled out of the dive just as she hit the Abyss. She blasted through the prison gates, shattering the iron bars.

Ren was chained to the wall in the dark. He looked up, bruised and bloody.

Sera landed in a crouch. "Get in, loser. We’re graduating."

Ren grinned, blood coating his teeth. "Took you long enough."

Sera slashed his chains with a wave of her hand. Ren grabbed her hand.

**[Harmonic Link Restored. Output: 200%.]**

They shot up out of the Abyss like a rocket.

They soared back up to the Ascendance Platform, landing with a boom that knocked the Sect Leader off his feet.

Sera and Ren stood back-to-back, holding hands. One glowed with white Yin ice, the other with red Yang fire. Together, they formed a perfect circle of gold.

"You wanted my power, Father?" Sera shouted, her voice amplified by the System. "Here it is!"

They moved in perfect sync. Ren blocked, Sera struck. Sera shielded, Ren attacked. It was a dance they had practiced in the Spirit Spring, a rhythm of two souls occupying the same beat.

Lin tried to crush them with his stolen gravity magic. But the Harmonic Qi unraveled his spells like cheap yarn.

"Double Strike: Celestial Harmony!"

They thrust their free palms forward. A beam of intertwined gold and silver energy blasted across the platform. It hit the Sect Leader, stripping the stolen ley line energy from his body and returning it to the mountain.

Lin collapsed, an old, powerless man.