Episode Seven: The Iron Path

Spiritfyt, Season One: Spiritual Connection

“Dear Lord,” I said quietly as I knelt beside my bed, clasping my hands together.

The apartment was still dark except for the soft blue glow of predawn light filtering through my window. Most of Zion Prime remained asleep beneath the Ark Dome. A few transit trains glided silently between districts, and scattered lights illuminated the towering buildings outside. In the distance, I could just make out the silhouette of the Academy standing against the dark horizon, waiting for the sun to rise.

“Thank You for another day. Thank You for waking me up, protecting me through the night, and bringing me this far. A year ago, I didn't think I'd ever leave Sanctora, and I certainly didn't think I'd be standing on the edge of becoming a Spirit Warrior. Everything I have is because of You.” I lowered my head further. “Lord, today is my first day of Gravity Training. I don't know exactly what's waiting for me, but You do. If it's difficult, help me endure it. If I fail, help me learn from it. If I'm successful, help me stay humble, and whatever happens today, let me honor You through it.”

I opened one eye.

“Also, if there happens to be breakfast at the academy, that would be wonderful.”

I shook my head and returned to my prayer.

“And thank You for my friends. Watch over Lyte, Nox, and Thalira today. Keep them safe and help us grow stronger together. Whatever challenges are coming, let us face them with courage and faith.” Outside, the first traces of sunlight began creeping over the distant skyline. “My King, my Lord, and my Savior, I trust You with this day. Whether today is easy or hard, exciting or exhausting, help me remember that You are with me through all of it.” A small smile returned. “And maybe let me hit at least one cool combat move.” I immediately winced. “After Your will is done, of course.” I laughed quietly. “In Jesus' name, amen.”

The moment I finished the prayer, I knew it was time to get going. I stood up, stretched, and got dressed in my new navy blue and gold uniform that was mailed in yesterday. I checked my reflection, adjusted my headband, checked my reflection again, and adjusted my headband a second time. Then I spent five whole minutes trying to decide whether my muscles looked good through the fitted sleeves. They did. Maybe. The important thing was that I was pretty sure they did. Satisfied, I grabbed my bag and headed out the door. Catching the transit was no hassle this morning because this wasn't the Driver From Hell’s shift, but by the time we got to the second district, of course the engine blew.

Because something like that makes perfect sense. 

"I'm going to be late!" I shouted before busting through the transit doors and going into a sprint through the city streets.

The Academy sat on a distant hill beyond the skyline, and somehow every second felt like it was moving faster than me. I dodged pedestrians, jumped over a bench, nearly collided with a maintenance drone, and still felt as if I was losing ground.

Then I heard a familiar voice. "Thunder?"

Looking up, I spotted Thalira gliding down the street on her hoverboard, hovering a few feet above the pavement. Her dark locs streamed behind her in the wind as she slowed beside me. "Running late?"

"Is that how it looks?" I replied through gasps of air.

Without another word, she extended a hand, and I took it. A second later she yanked me onto the back of the board. The hoverboard accelerated so quickly that I immediately grabbed her shoulders.

"THALIRA!" I yelled. "You're going to kill me!"

She laughed. "We're hovering three feet off the ground."

The city blurred around us as we shot through Zion Prime. When the morning sunlight spilled over the glass towers, I squinted my eyes before a small smile came to my lips. The city was absolutely breathtaking, and I was blessed to be here. 

The Academy finally came into view, along with the massive entrance gates. My stomach dropped when I noticed they were already beginning to close. Ahead of us, Lyte and Nox were sprinting toward the entrance as well. Apparently, we weren't the only ones running behind. The four of us converged on the gates at nearly the exact same moment, and the opening grew smaller and smaller until we were forced to dive through at the last second.

When the gates slammed behind us with a thunderous boom, silence followed. Forty-seven recruits stood waiting, and our instructors stared in our direction.

Sergeant Viera stared the hardest.

She looked at the four of us, then at the closed gates, then back at us. "Wonderful," she said flatly. "Gravity Training hasn't even started yet, and somehow the four of you nearly failed it."

Lyte smirked. "Technically, we succeeded."

One of Viera's eyes twitched, and I immediately got the feeling that our day was about to become significantly more difficult.

Sergeant Viera, Valen, and Stroud stood in a horizonal line directly in front of the academy.

Sergeant Viera stepped forward and pointed toward the ground. "Formation. Four rows. Tallest in the back, shortest in the front. Move."

The group immediately erupted into motion as recruits hurried into position. Boots shuffled against the floor, people switched places, and a few confused candidates were redirected by those around them. Within moments, thirty-five recruits stood arranged in four neat ranks facing the instructors.

“Good,” Viera nodded. “Now, when I order you to stand at attention, you will stand still, eyes forward, hands at your sides, and focused on the task before you. No talking. No fidgeting. No distractions. If your body cannot be still, your mind and spirit will not be still either."

Me, Nox, Thalira, and Lyte stood in a line together, eyes forward.

“Attention!” Viera bellowed.

Spines straightened, hands dropped to their sides, and everyone was as still as they could be. Which maybe wasn’t entirely still for a few of us, but so far, it was good enough.  

Viera slowly paced in front of the formation, her eyes inspecting each recruit.

"Better," she said. "If you're going to become Spirit Warriors, learn this now. Chaos belongs to demons, but discipline belongs to us." Viera continued to pace as she spoke. “Now, I want to see that Salute. When I call: Spiritfyt Salute, you will salute in unison! As one!” She stopped pacing and scanned over the group. “Spiritfyt Salute!”

Thirty-five fists slammed over thirty-five hearts with open palms raised into the air and heads bowed.  It was... considerably better than our first attempt.

Only a few recruits raised the wrong hand. One recruit somehow saluted half a second early. The timing wasn't perfect either, creating a strange ripple effect through the formation instead of true unity.

Still, it looked like a salute. Mostly.

All I knew was that Lyte, Thalira, Nox, and I were in sync.

Viera nodded and stepped back between the other two sergeants. “Acceptable.” Following that, the three of them returned the salute.

Now, it was time for Sergeant Stroud to speak. This could only mean it was nearly time for business.  He stepped forward and took a deep breath. “I’m not going to waste much time talking, so let’s get started. First, welcome back to the academy. I am grateful to be your new instructor, as we all are.”

Viera snorted with a roll of her eyes, and Sergeant Valen chuckled beside her.

“Today is your first official day of SpiritFyt training, beginning phase one of creating a Spiritual Connection with the Lord Jesus Christ. For those who don't know, Spiritual Connection is your relationship with the Lord. It is the foundation upon which every other step is built. Without it, strength becomes pride, knowledge becomes arrogance, and power becomes dangerous. When your identity is anchored in Him, you remain grounded no matter what challenges come your way. Over the coming months, we will help strengthen that foundation. Remember, a Spirit Warrior who knows who they are in Christ is far harder to break than one who only knows how to fight.” Stroud stood tall with his hands behind his back, facing us front and center. “From here, we will move on to Gravity Training. This training is to teach recruits how to remain grounded in Christ while the weight of power, pressure, and adversity increases around them. Sergeant Valen will explain more once we are all inside. Stay in formation as you follow us through the academy and keep your eyes forward. The seasoned trainees will be watching, so show everyone how Cohort Thirty-five walks in light!”

“In light!” We all responded in unison.

"Sergeant Valen will explain more once we are all inside. Stay in formation as you follow us through the academy and keep your eyes forward. The seasoned trainees will be watching, so show everyone how Cohort Thirty-Five walks in light!"

"In light!" we responded in unison.

With that, the instructors turned and began leading into the academy. We all moved as one formation, boots striking the polished floor in a steady rhythm. It wasn't perfect. A few people were slightly out of step, and the lines occasionally shifted, but compared to our first day, we looked far more organized.

Keeping my eyes forward was much harder than it sounded. The academy was massive. Wide hallways stretched beneath vaulted ceilings lined with banners bearing the academy insignia.  As we passed through the campus, more trainees stopped what they were doing to watch us. Some stood in groups near study areas while others were jogging between training sectors or practicing energy manipulation in open courtyards. A few wore the confident expressions of people who had already survived what we were about to experience, and for the first time, I truly felt like a recruit.

The deeper we traveled into the academy, the fewer windows there were. The bright atmosphere of the main campus gradually gave way to reinforced walls, heavier doors, and training sectors built more for function than beauty. Whatever Gravity Training was, it clearly wasn't designed to be comfortable.

Ahead of us, a set of enormous steel doors came into view. Above them, glowing letters read:

GRAVITY TRAINING SECTOR

A nervous energy spread through the formation, then the doors began to open.

The Gravity Training Sector looked less like a classroom and more like a military testing facility. The chamber beyond the doors was enormous, stretching so far that I couldn't immediately see the opposite wall. Reinforced steel beams lined the ceiling while glowing blue energy conduits ran throughout the room like veins. Hundreds of circular platforms covered the floor in organized rows, each large enough for a recruit to stand on. Around the perimeter were obstacle courses, sprint lanes, climbing structures, combat arenas, and training equipment unlike anything I had ever seen. Everything looked heavy, durable, and built to withstand tremendous force.

Yet the strangest part wasn't what I saw—it was what I felt. The moment I stepped inside, an invisible pressure settled over my body. It wasn't painful, but it was impossible to ignore. The air felt denser somehow, as if the room itself carried weight. My movements felt slightly slower, my muscles a little tighter, and even my breathing required more effort. Looking around, I noticed other recruits shifting uncomfortably as they felt it too. Whatever powered the Gravity Training Sector was already working on us before the training had even begun.

Sergeant Valen turned to face us with an excited and almost intimidating grin, then he clapped his hands together in front of him. "Welcome to the Gravity Training Sector. For the next several months, this facility will become your second home. Here, you will complete Phase One of your Spiritfyt training." He gestured around the chamber. "You will train eight hours each day with one hour for lunch and two thirty-minute breaks. Many of you will spend those breaks in the medical sector getting bandaged up, and you are still expected to return on time."

A nervous chuckle spread through the formation.

He continued. "The purpose of Gravity Training is to teach you how to remain grounded before learning to control spiritual energy. Most of you cannot intentionally manifest it yet, but the spiritual energy concentrated in this facility makes it easier to access than anywhere else in the city." Valen slowly smiled. "As a result, there will be times when your energy slips out unexpectedly. Don't panic. That's part of the process." He scanned the recruits. "By the end of Phase One, you will learn to remain grounded even when power begins to grow. Until then, try not to break too much academy property."

Valen pointed toward a long track surrounded by glowing blue walls lined with spiritual energy.

"Today's training is simple. You will run to the finish line, turn around, and run back. Then you'll do it again and repeat this until the end of the day. You will first be released into groups of five for observation, and then into groups of three for the second part of the day."

A few recruits visibly relaxed.

"Don't get comfortable," Valen said. "These energy walls place pressure on your spirit. A recruit's spirit naturally wants to react emotionally, influence the body, and pull you toward your impulses. As spiritual energy increases, those tendencies become stronger." He paced in front of the formation. "Without control, fear becomes panic, anger becomes recklessness, pride becomes overconfidence, and anxiety becomes hesitation. Gravity Training teaches you to remain centered despite that pressure. The stronger your spirit becomes, the more important it is that you know who you are." Valen pointed back toward the track. "Your goal isn't simply to run. It's to stay grounded while you do it." He chuckled. “I would give a consequence for failure, but just getting across the track will be hard enough.”

Sergeant Viera stepped forward with her holotab in hand. The first five will be the ones who were last to enter the academy grounds…” she glared at the four of us.  “And one other. Lyte, Nox, Thalira, Thunder, and our youngest to make Cohort Thirty-Five, Veris Callovis.

The boy standing directly in front of me turned to look over his shoulder, only looking through the corner of his eye. He couldn't have been older than thirteen. With caramel skin, a neatly shaped high-top haircut, and a slightly thick build, he looked younger than most of the recruits around him. Yet there was a quiet steadiness about him that made him seem older. His expression was calm, observant, and surprisingly confident, like he wasn’t worried at all.

“Usually, students his age train with the juniors, but because Veris bravely protected several people during the Arkfall while his parents took part in the battle, it was clear that he was to be added to our cohort.” Viera smirked. “Don’t embarrass yourselves by falling behind. Callovis or not, he’s still a kid.”

 Once again, this was another name I didn’t know, but I was impressed.

I smirked back at Viera, feeling challenged. After all my training, there was no way I’d fall behind. This was nothing compared to what I’d been through anyways, and the fact that I was fast on my feet probably already had me in the lead.

Viera stepped to the side to reveal the full track. It stretched nearly two hundred meters to the other end of the chamber, and I almost had to squint to see the white finish line drawn across the floor. "First group, step forward."

The five of us exchanged glances before moving from the formation.

Lyte stepped forward first. Towering over most of the recruits, he looked like a warrior monk carved from stone, his bald head reflecting the overhead lights. Despite his size, there was a calmness about him that made him seem completely unbothered by whatever waited ahead. "Prepare yourselves and remember to face the problem at hand. The problem isn't the energy, but how you handle it."

“Keep your emotions balanced guys,” Nox said as he stepped up. He removed his glasses and tucked them in his front jacket pocket as he walked forward, his movements smooth and deliberate. Unlike Lyte's overwhelming presence, Nox carried a quiet confidence. His brown eyes calmly studied the track as though he were already solving a puzzle no one else had noticed.

Thalira stepped up beside him and immediately looked ready to fight the track itself. Her long dark locs rested over her shoulders while her powerful frame radiated confidence. Hands tucked into her pockets, she stared down the lane as if daring it to get in her way. “We got this.”

I stepped forward next, and although I had confidence in myself, my heart pounded against my ribs. I wanted something cool to say, but I had nothing. “Y—yeah,” I tried to be enthusiastic, but it came out sounding completely unsure.

Lyte couldn’t hold back a chuckle, and Thalira just gave my shoulder a gentle pat that said, “maybe next time.”

I rolled my shoulders, adjusted my headband, and stared at the finish line. Somewhere between excitement and terror, I settled on determination, even if I didn’t sound like it.

Finally, Veris Callovis stepped into position. While most recruits looked nervous, Veris simply stared down the track with calm focus, as if he had already decided he wasn't quitting.

For a brief moment, the five of us stood shoulder-to-shoulder at the starting line.

The monk. The prince. The skater. The survivor. And The cub.

Suddenly, the glowing energy walls surrounding the track flickered to life, and the entire chamber hummed.

A sharp tone echoed through the room. "Go!"

I exploded forward.

The first few steps felt easy. My feet pounded against the track as I sprinted beside the others, the finish line fixed firmly in my mind. The energy walls blurred in my peripheral vision while adrenaline surged through my body. For a brief moment, I thought maybe Gravity Training wouldn't be so bad after all.

Then the pressure hit, and it slammed into me without warning.

One second, I was running, and the next, it felt like an invisible giant had grabbed my entire body and hurled me sideways. My feet left the ground, and before I could react, I crashed shoulder-first into the glowing energy wall.

The impact knocked the air from my lungs, and I bounced off the barrier before collapsing onto one knee causing gasps to erupt from the recruits watching us. My vision blurred as the spiritual pressure pressed down on me from every direction, making it feel like the wall itself was trying to crush me into the floor.

I gritted my teeth and forced myself back up.

My thoughts became louder, and my emotions grew sharper. Every heartbeat seemed to echo through my entire body as the spiritual energy surrounding the track pushed against me from all directions. Somehow, I had become the first recruit to get slammed into a wall.

And we hadn't even made it twenty meters.

Looking up, Nox was taking a slow jog. I could tell that he wanted to sprint but was staying cautious, his pace only slowing picking up, and surprisingly, Veris was even further ahead. Thalira was actually taking slow and calculated steps, appearing to be battling the spiritual energy only slightly better than myself.

Lyte dropped down on one knee beside me, a gentle smile on his face as he placed his hand at the center of my back. Without saying a word, I nodded back to him and stood to my feet. The moment that I was upright, it was as if the energy had slammed into me again, only this time I wasn’t folded.

Lyte removed his hand and began to walk ahead before picking up his pace and charging into a full-blown sprint. The moment he caught up to Nox, the two of them began racing one another.

“I got this,” I said to myself before beginning to pick up my pace. It was just that as soon as I began to run for a few seconds, a burst of energy hit me again and I was slammed into another wall. What surprised me was when I hit the floor, I felt irritation surge within me and was immediately slammed into another wall. Feeling out of control, anxiety had risen and I was thrown against another wall. I didn’t know what to do to calm down when I hit the ground, so I held my breath.

Following that, Thalira hit the wall a few feet behind me. She could barely get out a growl before being slammed to the other side.

“You have to keep calm girls,” Viera instructed from behind, holding up her holotab. “Balance your emotions. Thalira, you went from anxiety to anger. Thunder…you’re all over the place. Get it together.”   

I clenched my teeth, wondering if I had to turn off my emotions altogether, but that wasn’t actually balancing them out. No, that was avoidance.

Jumping back to my feet, I attempted to sprint across as if to dodge the energy forces around me but only took a few steps before I was hurled against another wall. This time, I could hear the other recruits behind me laughing, only bringing about embarrassment and more frustration. If there was one thing I couldn’t stand, it was being laughed at when I wasn’t even trying to be funny.

This caused complete and utter chaos.

I was slammed from one wall to the next, only able to take a few steps in between each blow. By this point, I was no longer focused on balancing but forcing myself through and finishing. The laughter from behind had only gotten louder, causing me to feel a need to prove something. That’s when I used my ability to endure pain as a strategy.

If I couldn’t balance my emotions, then I’d get through with sheer willpower.

Thalira wasn’t far behind, but she was getting slammed less and less.

Nox and Lyte had only been slammed once at opposite sides just before reaching the finish line, and Veris was sitting on a bench waiting at the end.

My nose bled and I was somewhat dizzy, but this was nothing. At least, that was what I told myself, and I was sure my stubbornness was also an emotion that got the wind knocked out of me again.  I looked up at Nox, who was now watching at the other end of the track. He tried to encourage me to take a deep breath, but it had been knocked out of me again.

Nox and Lyte glanced at one another before nodding and sprinting directly towards us.

When Lyte reached Thalira, he took her by the hand and gave her a reassuring look. I wasn’t sure what he was saying to her, but at some point, the two of them were able to do a slow jog the last one hundred meters.

I rolled onto my back to find Nox looking down at me.

"Oh, Nox," I panted, slightly delirious from oxygen deprivation or head trauma. Maybe both.

"Hey, it's you."

"I would ask if you were alright, but you already look like you need to go to medical," he said.

I laughed and immediately regretted it. "Ouch."

Nox crouched beside me and extended a hand. After helping me sit up, he looked toward the finish line and then back at me. "Thunder, what are you thinking about while you're running?"

"Winning." I answered

"I don't think that's it."

"Not getting slammed into walls?"

"No,” he chuckled. “You clearly don't care about that."

I frowned.

Nox sighed. "You're thinking about the people watching."

My mouth opened, then closed, because he was right.

"The moment they laughed, you stopped running the track and started trying to prove something. I saw you."

I looked away.

"The walls aren't responding to your legs. They're responding to your spirit," he explained. 

That sounded about right.

Nox pointed toward the glowing energy walls. "Listen carefully. The problem isn't the walls, and the problem isn't the pressure. The problem is your reaction to them. You need to deal with the problem in front of you, not the ones behind you. When you get embarrassed, frustrated, and excited, you react. Every emotion pulls your spirit in a different direction."

I stared at the finish line. "Then what am I supposed to do?"

Nox smiled slightly. "Nothing."

I blinked. "That's terrible advice."

"It's balance." He stood and offered his hand again. "Stop fighting with every emotion. Acknowledge it and let it pass. You're embarrassed? Fine. You're frustrated? Fine. You're afraid? Fine." He pointed at my chest. "But none of those things are who you are."

Something about those words made me pause.

"The stronger your spirit becomes, the more important it is that you know who you are. If your identity changes every time you feel something, you'll never stay grounded." Nox folded his arms. "So, who are you?"

I looked up. "I'm Thunder. The strongest, muscular, lightning wielder, super powered, master of energy tracks." I said as I slowly climbed back to my feet. 

Nox gave me a blank stare. "That's not a real thing."

"Fine." I stood tall. "I'm Thunder, future hero, future Spirit Warrior, and owner of the strongest calves in Cohort Thirty-Five."

Nox pinched the bridge of his nose. "We're getting farther away from the answer." He stepped beside me and nodded toward the finish line. "Now stop trying to prove yourself to everyone else. Let's just run."

For the first time since entering the track, I took a slow breath, and the laughter behind me faded. The pressure remained, and the walls remained, but somehow, they felt smaller now.

Together, Nox and I began jogging toward the finish line.

 When we were just about to cross, I said, “You know, I could swear I’m the oldest between the two of us.” In that moment, I was slammed at the edge of the wall to my right and flipped over the finish line. 

“Pride will do it,” Lyte laughed, only I wasn’t annoyed by his laughter.

From the ground, I read a glowing screen mounted above a row of padded recovery benches. Large blue letters scrolled across it: REST HERE

Beneath the words, smaller text read: ANOTHER GROUP IS BEING SELECTED.

Next thing I knew, five new recruits were being slammed against the walls left and right the moment Viera said, "Go."

The rest of the day became a blur of running, crashing, recovering, and running again. Group after group was sent down the track while the instructors watched from the sidelines. At some point, our group was merged with six others until eleven of us were running together. The strange thing was that I was actually getting better. Not good, but better. Instead of being launched every few steps, I could now make it halfway down the track before getting slammed into a wall. Then three-quarters of the way. Then almost the entire length.

What I didn't realize was that my spirit energy had begun slipping into my muscles. Every lap, my legs felt a little lighter, my recovery became faster, and the soreness disappeared quicker than it should have. While everyone else complained about exhaustion, I kept getting back up. At the time, the instructors noticed, Nox noticed, but I didn't. I simply assumed I was too stubborn to stay down.

Across the track, Thalira was becoming a force of nature. The energy walls still caught her occasionally, but each time she rose faster than before. After we got back from lunch, she was charging down the lane with so much confidence that some recruits moved out of her way before she even reached them. Lyte remained exactly as Lyte always was. Whenever someone got hurt, he was there helping them to their feet. Whenever someone felt discouraged, he somehow found the right thing to say. And Nox made the entire exercise look unfair. The pressure that tossed everyone else around barely seemed to affect him. He moved with calm precision, as though he had been training in gravity fields his entire life.

Then there was Veris.

The thirteen-year-old somehow turned Gravity Training into a competition.

By midday he had started racing other recruits to the finish line. While the rest of us were collecting bruises, Veris weaved through the pressure with surprising ease. Not once did I see him get thrown into a wall. Every time he crossed the finish line, he wore the same calm expression that made me want to throw something at him.

Eventually, the chamber lights shifted from bright white to a warm amber, and the final whistle echoed throughout the sector. One by one, recruits collapsed onto benches, floors, and recovery mats. I stood there panting, covered in bruises, sweat, and what I was pretty sure was my own blood.

Everything hurt, yet as I looked around the chamber at my friends and the exhausted recruits surrounding me, a realization slowly settled in.

I had made it through the first day.

I survived.

Standing there beneath the amber lights, battered and exhausted, I couldn't help but grin. It felt like one of those moments from the old hero shows I used to watch in Sanctora—the kind where the character looks up after a brutal battle and realizes they're still standing.

Tomorrow would probably be worse, but for today, I was still here.

I took a deep breath, recalling a scripture that came to mind. "And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up." — Galatians 6:9 (ESV)

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