The Broken Halo

His demonic energy strengthened his body again, and wind elemental energy left its reservoir and separated into three currents.

The air behind Simon distorted once again.

Hum!

The Storm Throne appeared.

The gathering current curved around it, forming the outer section of the Crown. The compressing current followed from beneath, rotating in the opposite direction.

Between them moved the command current.

It no longer looked like a simple line.

The silver-green current wound around the other two like a thin serpent with its tail caught between its teeth.

The Crown expanded.

Half a metre.

One metre.

The gathering current drew in air from every corner of the room. The flames illuminating the room leaned toward Simon, while the shadows they created stretched and trembled across the walls.

The bedsheets lifted.

Dust and small pieces of stone rose from the floor.

Even the air inside the corridor pressed faintly against the door as the forming Crown pulled at everything around it.

This time, the upper section did not swell.

Whenever the gathering current drew in too much air, the compressing current accelerated. The command spiral noticed the difference almost immediately and redirected the excess pressure.

The ring became complete, and it gave off a faint and low sound because the outer and inner currents rotate against one another.

It was not quite a whistle.

And neither was it a roar.

No.

That was wrong.

It was a low and distant roar that sounded like a storm moving across mountains far beyond the city.

Behind Simon floated a pale green Crown roughly one and a third metres in diameter.

It stood vertically behind his upper body, with the Storm Throne resting at its centre half a metre away from his spine.

Countless strands of wind rotated inside the Crown.

The outer gathering current moved clockwise, while the inner compressing current turned in the opposite direction. Between them, the silver-green command current spiralled endlessly.

The currents moved quickly, but the centre of the formation remained strangely calm.

No wind touched Simon unless he allowed it.

The Gale Crown had formed.

Simon kept his eyes closed and studied every change inside it.

The pressure travelling through the Storm Throne entered his upper back and spread along his spine and shoulders. It was noticeable, but his body endured it easily.

His wind elemental reservoir was also being consumed, although not as quickly as he initially calculated.

Once the Crown completed its first rotation, it began gathering air and preserving part of its own movement. The amount of elemental energy required to maintain it decreased.

That was the foundation of the Fury Tempest Art.

The Crown did not need Simon to recreate its movement every second.

Once it began rotating, it remembered.

Simon slowly raised his right arm, and that slight movement pushed the air away from his body.

Ordinarily, the disturbance in the air would have scattered and disappeared. However, the Gale Crown caught part of it.

Its rotation became slightly faster.

Simon lowered his arm, but the disturbance in the air remained inside the Crown.

A faint smile appeared on his face.

He rose from the floor without dismissing the technique.

The Crown moved with him.

Simon took one step forward.

At the same moment, he released a small portion of the pressure stored inside the Gale Crown from behind his body.

Whoosh!

His figure crossed the room faster than he intended.

Simon appeared beside the window, his coat snapping behind him as the remaining wind struck the wall.

He did not lose his balance.

The Gale Crown immediately changed its flow and increased the resistance in front of his body, helping him stop without taking another step.

Simon looked over his shoulder.

The Crown continued rotating behind him while absorbing the wind generated around Simon.

The Gale Crown was not a simple movement technique.

It controlled the momentum surrounding its user.

By releasing pressure behind himself, Simon could accelerate without pushing against the ground. He could move sideways, backward, or change direction in the air.

He could also increase the resistance before his body and stop suddenly without allowing his own momentum to carry him forward.

More importantly, every movement fed the Crown.

Running.

Dodging.

Turning.

Punching.

Even being knocked backward by an enemy would disturb the surrounding air and give the Crown more movement to preserve.

Simon could then release that stored momentum through his body.

A burst behind his fist would strengthen a punch.

A release beneath his foot would increase the force of a kick or launch him into the air.

If an enemy struck him, Simon could not erase the attack, but he could guide part of the force around his body and into the Crown’s rotation.

The stronger the battle became, the more movement the Gale Crown could gather.

Of course, it had limits.

It could not preserve an infinite amount of momentum. Once the pressure exceeded what Simon could control, the Crown would become unstable and rupture.

If he remained completely still and there was no wind around him, the Crown would have less movement to gather. He could still maintain it using wind elemental energy, but doing so would increase the consumption.

The Gale Crown was also the foundation of the other five.

If an enemy disrupted it after Simon formed several Crowns, the entire Fury Tempest Art might become unstable.

He would have to protect it.

Simon stretched his arm forward and clenched his fist.

Then he punched the empty air.

BAM!

The physical movement created a sharp gust.

The Gale Crown captured part of it, then Simon released the stored pressure behind his fist before the punch completely ended.

BANG!

A second impact struck the air.

The two forces overlapped and produced a visible distortion that travelled across the room before Simon dispersed it close to the wall.

His eyes flickered with satisfaction.

The first impact came from his body.

The second came from the Crown.

An enemy who blocked the punch might lower their guard after enduring Simon’s physical strength, only to receive another burst a fraction of a second later.

’If I find a way to combine this with the Broken Rhythm Art... What would it become?’

Simon’s eyes flickered with a light of madness and excitement the moment he had this thought.

However, he knew that he had to wait before he could combine both arts. He needed to master the Fury Tempest Art to a satisfactory level.

Simon slowly relaxed his arm.

Vhaurak had created the Gale Crown in his mind, but he died before he could ever hear it rotate.

Simon could hear it now.

The quiet roar continued behind him as pale green and silver-green currents circled the Storm Throne.

The Gale Crown described in the Fury Tempest Art was powerful.

The Crown Simon created was slightly smaller, denser, more efficient, and capable of correcting minor imbalances on its own.

It was not a complete transformation of Vhaurak’s design.

It was only the first improvement.

Simon looked at the rotating ring behind him and smiled faintly.

The First Storm Crown had been born.

Now, it was time to give birth to the Second Storm Crown... The Rending Crown.