Rebirth: 100 Days Before Doomsday

The wind inside the Infinite Realm was extra still this particular evening as Grace settled down in the front garden, under the violet-hued sky where the first stars of the night just begun making their appearances.

There was a formation etched into the ground beneath Grace's feet and she settled down in the very centre of it. This was a formation she learnt from Rune, and it was meant to help her in what she was about to do next.

Inhaling deeply, she summoned two Level 10 Red Spirit Stones from the inventory, letting them suspend before her in a cradle of thought-formed golden light.

The two stones were burning like twin suns - raw, furious, and unrelenting in their heat. If it was any ordinary warrior standing near them, they would have ended up heavily injured just from the sheer power of these two stones.

But Grace wasn't ordinary. Not anymore.

She had walked through death, bathed in fire, hunted monsters, and carved a new world out of chaos. And now, she was standing on the edge of something no human had dared before.

She was about to create the first Level 20 Spirit Stone to ever exist.

"Are you ready?" asked 2025 as it appeared next to her. Its voice was calm as always, but there was a slight tinge in it from concern that it kept showing whenever she pushed the limits of what even it could predict.

"I have never been more ready," Grace replied, keeping her voice steady but low.

A low, deep growl rolled across the land as the dragon made its appearance, ready to observe her fusing the stones. Its massive form crowded the air above the front garden as it spoke.

"Then do not hesitate. You have done the impossible before. I'm sure you can do it again. But this time, you should remember that if this fails, those stones will not just be lost. They might explode."

Grace nodded before lifting her hands. "Don't worry, I won't let them fail."

She had spent years refining her Spirit Stones fusion skill with thought-creation. She had fused thousands of stones over the years, and yet, she knew that this one was going to be a real challenge. After all, she had never fused two such powerful stones before.

So far, her most powerful fusion had been between a Level 9 Blue Stone and a Level 7 Blue Stone, which had resulted in a rare Level 16 Water Core. It took her about four hours to fuse them, as well almost every ounce of her energy.

Her gaze focused on the two stones in front of her. Each was already dangerously unstable.

Their power constantly clashed, even as she held them suspended. One flicker of hesitation, one miscalculation in the process, and both would either explode or permanently cancel each other out, wasting years of effort and risking destruction even inside the safety of her spatial realm.

But despite the consequences, she still began the process of fusion.

A ring of flame lit beneath her, formed entirely from glowing symbols of fire.

2025 worked from the sidelines, and sent her synchronized calculations, projecting three possible models of success and a stream of real-time diagnostics as she worked.

Grace drew in a long, deep breath before she began threading her thoughts to fuse the two stones - golden energy of creation wrapping around the two stones, slowly coming together and fusing.

The stones started trembled violently at first, trying to repel each other. One flared brighter, then dimmed, while the other cracked faintly along its edges.

Grace didn't stop. She began binding them, thread by thread, slowly weaving the first fusion cage around their cores.

One hour passed. Then two.

Her forehead was drenched in sweat. Her clothes were clinging to her body. But her thoughts didn't stop working even for a second as they worked on fusing the stones.

At the fifth hour, she felt the first wave of dizziness that passed over her within a second. Her energy level had already dropped below 40%.

"Master, your neural fatigue is reaching dangerous levels," 2025 warned. "Recommend initiating a break."

"You know that I can't," she returned. "If I stop now, they'll destabilize."

From above, the dragon let out a rough chuckle. "That's the spirit. But be careful, woman. Burn too bright, and you'll become flame yourself."

By the seventh hour, the fusion cage was complete. The stones were now hovering inches apart, contained within the same sphere of golden energy.

With the first step completed, she began the next one - merging their cores to finish their fusion.

This was the hardest part. She had to slowly melt the outer shells of both stones, then guide the raw elemental energy into a new shape... one neither of the stones had ever held before.

Red light flooded the garden and flames erupted like walls around her, swirling, dancing, roaring. The ground cracked beneath her. Her skin started feeling the burn despite her possessing fire elemental power. But she still held on.

Ten hours. Eleven.

By this point, her limbs were numb. Her mind was a haze. Her energy level had nearly depleted. Her body was trembling violently. But somewhere deep inside her, her will blazed brighter than the fire that surrounded her.

She knew that she needed to succeed... to save herself, to save the realm, and to save the stones and the eleven hours of work she put into fusing them.

And then, finally after what felt like forever, something clicked. It was like the gentle strike of a bell echoing in the void - the two cores collapsed into one.

In a single flash of crimson-gold light, the flames were sucked inward. The garden became deadly silent as Grace opened her eyes and found a new stone hovering right above her palm.

It was unlike anything she had ever seen.

Glowing crimson at the edges, but golden at the core. Heat shimmered from it, but it didn't burn. It pulsed with a rhythmic thrum, like the beating of a powerful heart.

Level 20 Fire Spirit Stone.

The first of its kind.