The dawn on the athletic track was a promise tinged with a cold blue, the air sharp, almost metallic, when Ethan gripped Danny's arm, stopping him in his tracks. Ethan's hand was firm, surprisingly strong, and his grip contained an urgency that didn't fit with his usual carefree facade.
"Don't do it," Ethan whispered through gritted teeth, his voice barely a thread, but each word charged with an intensity that pierced Danny's fog of tiredness. Ethan's eyes, normally so full of the light of the spotlights, were now fixed on Danny's with an unusual seriousness, almost a warning. "Don't reveal how you do it. Not yet. I know you don't want what happened to Jake to happen again, but I'll help you survive."
Danny blinked, confusion clouding his mind. Sweat trickled down his forehead, a cold stream that contrasted with the stabbing heat in his chest, still heaving from the effort of the first laps. Why the secret? Why now? He just wanted to be useful, to show that he wasn't dead weight.
"But... it's teamwork, isn't it?" he murmured, lowering his voice, almost feeling guilty for the idea that Ethan was trying to plant. If he helped them, he thought with the naivety that still clung to him, they would all win. That was the right thing to do.
Ethan shook his head, an almost imperceptible movement, but charged with a brutal pragmatism.
"That's not how this game works," he said, squeezing his shoulder, the message clear, without the need for harsher words. "If you show all your cards now, they'll use you." And when you're no longer useful...
He didn't finish the sentence. It wasn't necessary. The silence that stretched between them was eloquent, painting a bleak picture of what awaited a pawn once its usefulness was exhausted.
Danny looked at him, and for the first time, he saw something in Ethan's eyes that wasn't the calculated smile of the influencer, nor the polished charisma for the camera. It was fear. A raw, almost protective fear, that he himself was beginning to understand, an echo of the vulnerability he felt in every step he took in the Ether Tower. The revelation was like a dull blow: Ethan was not only helping him out of altruism, but for something deeper, an empathy born perhaps from his own understanding of the cruelty of the game.
Then, Rook appeared on the track, his tall figure silhouetted against the rising light, a calm smile on his face that seemed to always know more than he said.
"Planning the conquest of the world or just running?" Rook asked, his voice resonating with a lightness that broke the tension.
Ethan relaxed instantly, the golden boy mask returning to its place with a disturbing ease. He released Danny, his hand leaving a warm trail on his shoulder.
"Running, for now. Then the conquest," Ethan joked, and the world seemed to return to its axis.
And so they began.
The three of them together, synchronized steps. Rook, a human metronome, with his constant rhythm and a stride surprisingly light for his size; Ethan, with the innate elegance of an athlete, each movement fluid and efficient; Danny, struggling not to be left behind, each inhalation and exhalation a conscious effort, his body feeling the familiar pain of overcoming. But on the fifth lap, his determination faltered. He ran out of oxygen, his lungs burned, and his legs felt like lead. He stopped, panting, hands on his knees, the world spinning.
"I... can't..." he managed to say between gasps, defeat a bitter taste in his mouth.
Rook approached and patted him on the back, not with pity, but with an approval that disarmed Danny.
"Five more laps than yesterday. You're improving," he said, as if it were an unquestionable fact, an irrefutable truth. His tone was one of genuine optimism, an acceptance that Danny was not used to receiving.
Ethan smiled, an open smile, but Danny did not miss the look he gave Rook over his head: a silent care, a nod of complicity that told Danny that there was an invisible support network weaving around him.
While Danny caught his breath, a question hit him harder than the tiredness: Why was Ethan protecting his secret so much? What did Ethan know about the true nature of these games that he, Danny, still didn't understand? The question hung in the icy air of dawn, an ember igniting inside him.
The scale shone under the harsh light of the gym, the digital numbers flashing with a cruel anticipation before stabilizing. Danny stared, his eyes fixed on the figure, disbelief growing in his chest. He had lost almost four kilos. Four. It was a small number in the grand scheme of things, but for him, it was a universe.
"Hey, look at that!" exclaimed Rook, passing behind him with a carefree energy, reading the figure before Danny could react. "You've been doing great."
It wasn't an exaggerated compliment, nor an insult in disguise. It was a fact. A fact that Danny barely dared to believe. A small, but significant, victory.
Ethan appeared at his side, a towel hanging over his shoulder, golden with sweat. The light of the gym seemed to cling to him, highlighting every muscle.
"See? The diet does work," he said, with a note of pride in his voice, as if the numbers on the scale were a personal achievement of the three of them.
Danny blushed, a wave of heat rising up his neck. He still found it hard to accept praise.
"Yeah, well... now I only need, uh, all the other kilos," he murmured, trying to downplay it, to minimize the small miracle he had just witnessed.
But inside, a small spark of pride burned, warm and persistent. Discipline had paid off. And that deserved to be celebrated.
"I feel like a double barbecue chicken, extra sauce, fries and... you know what? A chocolate milkshake," he said, savoring the food in his mouth, the thought of each bite a small rebellion.
"Oh no, no, no!"
Ethan looked at him with an expression of absolute betrayal, as if Danny had proposed an act of high treason.
"Seriously? After seeing progress?" he asked, his voice a mixture of disbelief and playful reproach.
Danny rolled his eyes, a small display of his growing confidence.
"It's a celebration. Even professional athletes have one," he protested, stretching a hand towards the imaginary food.
Ethan didn't give in. His determination, although tinged with humor, was unwavering.
"Professional athletes don't have to run from Kael in three days," he reminded, his voice dropping to a more serious tone, a subtle threat of the reality of the competition. "Half an hour more on the track and then you eat."
Danny let out a dramatic groan, but Ethan was already dragging him back to the track, his smile intact, but his eyes serious. It was one more example of that strange, and appreciated, protection.
It was Rook who saved him. As if he had read his mind, or simply understood the need of a hungry soul, he threw something at Danny.
"Here," said Rook. "It's protein. But it tastes like vanilla. Almost like the real dessert."
Danny bit into it with skepticism, distrust etched on his face... and his eyes lit up. It was sweet, creamy, a small paradise in a wrapper.
"It's good!" he exclaimed, his mouth full, his voice resonating with a childish joy.
Ethan crossed his arms, a grimace of false disapproval on his face.
"You two cheaters," he grumbled, but Danny didn't miss the smile that shone in his eyes, a flash of genuine fun and affection.
And for a moment, while the afternoon sun filtered through the windows of the gym, painting golden stripes on the polished floor, and the laughter of his companions echoed in the distance, Danny forgot they were in a game.
He forgot the runes, the secrets, the omnipresent cameras.
He was just a boy, celebrating a small personal triumph, with friends who, against all odds and despite the relentless nature of the Ether Games, seemed to truly care.
But in the shadow of the door, a camera turned towards them, its lens cold and omniscient, capturing the moment.
The world was still watching them.
The Ether Tower library was unlike any other Danny had imagined. It was a space that defied logic, a testament to the fusion between the arcane and the Tower's cutting-edge technology. Samantha had taken the training to this sanctuary of knowledge, a place where ether could not be actively conjured, but where the power of the runes resided in its purest form, waiting to be deciphered. It was the perfect playing field for the mind, an arena where intelligence was the true force.
The shelves were not made of aged wood, but of ether crystal, translucent and cold to the touch, with veins of energy that pulsed like luminescent veins beneath its surface. The books did not rest inert; they floated in mid-air, their pages turning on their own from time to time with an ethereal whisper, as if they were alive, dictating their own secrets to the air. The atmosphere was one of reverent silence, broken only by the soft hum of latent energy.
And in the center of it all, Samantha Jens waited, an imposing figure with a stack of ancient books in her arms and a smile that promised challenges, a mixture of enigma and authority.
"Congratulations," she said, her voice clear and resonant in the space, dropping a book in front of each participant with a resounding thud that seemed to make the crystal of the floor vibrate. "You mastered the basics. Now comes the fun part."
Danny caught his in the air, the texture of the cover, strangely warm despite the cold crystal of the shelves, and the abnormal weight of the pages, surprised him. Upon opening it, the air around him vibrated slightly, a resonance that only he seemed to perceive so clearly.
They weren't just scribbled runes.
It was pure mathematics. The fundamental language of the universe, translated into symbols.
While the others leafed through their books with expressions of confusion, frustration, or even despair, as if trying to decipher an alien language, Danny's eyes devoured each symbol, each formula. His mind, a prodigious machine for logic, lit up. They weren't random drawings, but a complex, elegant, and beautiful system.
* Ignis was not just fire: it was a sequence of accelerated particles at a 42-degree angle, a trajectory precisely calculated to optimize combustion.
* Aqua was not water: it was the controlled vibration of molecules in a fractal pattern, generating coherence in the flow.
* Lux was not light: it was a wave calculated to refract at specific points, manipulating the spectrum and intensity.
It was as if someone had translated the universe into a language that only he, Danny Mercer, the "chess kid," could read and understand on a visceral level. His mind didn't just memorize; it understood.
Samantha passed by his table, her movement deliberately casual as she pretended to adjust Ethan's book, but her words, low and penetrating, were only for Danny:
"Not all combinations are in that book. The true masters... create their own."
Danny felt a shiver of recognition. A test within the test.
"This is impossible!" Jake protested, frustration boiling in his voice as he threw his book onto the crystal table with a dry thud. "How am I supposed to memorize this?"
Samantha was unfazed. Her gaze settled on Jake, unwavering.
"It's not memorization. It's understanding," she said, approaching him, her voice calm but sharp as crystal. "And if you don't have it, you better stick to the basic runes. Ignis badly combined with Ventus will not only fail... it will create a mini-tornado that will tear off your skin. It's all in the drawing, in understanding the patterns."
The silence that followed was so thick that Danny could hear the hum of the pages of his own book, the latent energy of the ether vibrating around him. Fear spread among the participants, a bleak recognition of the true depth of this challenge.
Ethan, at his side, whispered, his voice tinged with amazement:
"Do you understand all this?"
Danny nodded, almost without realizing it, his fingers tracing invisible patterns on the cold surface of the table. The equations danced in his mind, the logic flowing effortlessly.
"Yes... it's just applied algebra. The ecosystem of the runes."
Ethan looked at him as if he had just grown a third eye, his expression a mixture of disbelief and a growing admiration that Danny felt like an unexpected balm.
While the others struggled to decipher a single page, their minds blocked by the complexity, Danny had already finished the book, absorbing every equation, every diagram. He didn't need to memorize the safe combinations. He could calculate them. He could predict the interactions, the fusions, the chain reactions.
And in that moment, an icy clarity settled in his mind.
Samantha hadn't given them a manual to follow.
She had given them a weapon, a language of power, a key to unlock the true potential of the ether.
And he, Danny Mercer, the chess player, the outcast, the one who considered himself the weak link, was the only one who knew how to fire it.
ETHER TOWER NOTES 📊
Gossip is the real ether that moves the corridors, and here are the juiciest vibes and the morbid curiosity that no one tells you off-camera!
* The bromance that melts the networks! 🤩 The cameras captured an intimate moment between Ethan Voltaire (Fitness Model) and Danny Mercer (Chess) in the gym. Laughter, knowing glances, and an exchange of "suspicious bars" that screams "pure friendship." While others fight for a like, they are already "friendship goals" on all platforms. Ethan has found his new shadow... or his new number one fan!
* Jake Torrin (Tactical Military): Leader on the verge of collapse or strategy genius? 🤯 His outburst in the library about the advanced runes has set off alarms. Is it pure frustration or a calculated show to divert attention? Reality show experts debate: are we seeing the fall of a leader or the birth of an anti-hero? Bets are open on when he will lose control again!
* Helios Kane's (Boxing) love triangle gets complicated! 😳 We already saw him with Marina Lux and Lyra Whisper, but now viper tongues whisper about an undeniable tension between Helios and Dorian Vael (Fencing), both from Team Solaris. Their glances in the dining room, the way Dorian is always "near" Helios during stretches... Could it be pure male rivalry or is there something more passionate blossoming between these two heartthrobs? The new BL that no one asked for, but everyone wants to see!
* Sophie Riel (Urban Parkour): The queen of the background, but not of the foreground. 💔 Every time Sophie tries to catch Ethan's attention, the cameras seem to focus on anything else that is happening behind her. In the dining room, while she was trying her flirtation, the real focus was the unexpected connection between Ethan and Danny. Fans online don't talk about her outfit, but about "Ethan and Danny's conversation behind Sophie" or "Who is the guy that Rook passed the protein bar to Danny?". Poor Sophie, always an extra in her own scene.
* Team Sage: Enlightened intellectuals or simple imposters? 🤫 The astonishing ease with which Danny Mercer deciphered the "mathematical magic" of the advanced runes has put the credibility of the "scholars" of Team Sage in check. Could it be that their reputation as wise men is just a facade, or is Danny the real hidden brain of the p Games, underestimated by everyone until now? The Ether Tower is vibrating with the question: who is the real genius here?