Falling Haste City welcomed Kai with an overwhelming breath of life.
The carriage descended smoothly as the winged beasts slowed, their great feathered limbs folding inward as the vehicle touched the stone landing platform reserved for high-ranking clans. The moment Kai stepped out, a strange mix of noise, color, and distant mechanical hum filled his senses.
This place did not resemble the ancient kingdom of Valeria at all.
It was larger. Brighter. More advanced.
A fusion of eras that had no right to coexist.
Structures of polished steel rose beside brick towers, their surfaces reflecting the orange sunset like molten gold. Old cobbled streets intertwined with smooth glass pathways. Floating lanterns drifted lazily along the air currents, illuminating wide plazas filled with chatter and movement. And at the city's very center, towering above everything, stood the castle-like headquarters of the Continent Alliance an enormous structure of dark stone, silver metal veins, and engraved runes pulsing faintly with world energy.
The guard next to Kai cleared his throat.
"My prince, your private residence is prepared. The other families and clan heirs have also arrived for the awakening trials, so the city is… lively."
Lively was an understatement.
It felt like a world preparing for revolution.
Kai nodded slightly and followed the escort. Their residence was located along an elevated section of the city, overlooking the major streets and the distant pillars that pierced the horizon. The Pillars of Creation themselves.
Once inside, Kai washed, changed, and tried to rest. But lying in bed only made his thoughts louder. His sister. His bloodline. His curse. His fear of the trial.
So finally he exhaled and stood up.
"I want to see the city," he told the guards.
They bowed and assigned an escort.
As Kai walked through the streets, the city unfolded like a tale from another age. He had seen cities of grandeur before Valeria's capital of Athelguard was once considered a marvel but Falling Haste felt older and newer at the same time.
He saw flying vehicles and beast-drawn carriages sharing the same sky. Blacksmiths forging weapons beside rune-crafters working with glowing crystals. Monks in traditional robes standing beside armored knights whose armor shimmered with modern enchantments.
The air smelled of incense, burnt metal, and the distant scent of greenery from the vast public gardens.
Everything felt alive.
Everything felt larger than him.
Eventually, after a long walk, Kai found himself sitting on a bench in a quiet park. A well-maintained fountain gurgled nearby, sending shimmering droplets into the air. Children ran past, laughing, their guardians watching from benches. Travelers from other kingdoms admired the greenery. Merchant caravans passed by the road beyond the trees.
And Kai…
He stared blankly, his thoughts drifting.
Lost.
Uncertain.
Afraid in ways he would never admit.
His sister's words echoed in his head.
The bloodline.
The curse.
The trial.
What if his curse was monstrous?
What if it consumed him?
What if he failed and his body dissolved into world energy?
He rubbed his chest, trying to steady his heartbeat.
He was just thirteen.
He wasn't supposed to carry the weight of a kingdom.
He wasn't supposed to feel like he was already drowning.
Footsteps approached.
He ignored them.
A laugh cut through the quiet park.
"Well, well… look who we have here."
Kai blinked and looked up.
Several youths stood before him—heirs of other clans and noble families. Each wore expensive training clothes, symbols glowing faintly on their chests indicating their lineage. Their expressions were smug, amused, arrogant.
One of them stepped forward. Blond hair. Sharp blue eyes. A posture that reeked of superiority.
"The last prince of House Valeria," he said loudly, his voice dripping with mockery. "I didn't know your house was still alive."
Laughter echoed from the group behind him.
Kai's jaw tightened.
He did not stand.
He did not speak.
But his fingers curled into a fist on his knee.
House Valeria.
Once the most feared lineage.
Now reduced to two people Kai and his sister.
The blond heir smirked, leaning closer.
"Your house is nothing but a ghost story now," he continued. "A fallen relic pretending to matter."
Kai inhaled slowly.
His heartbeat thudded harder.
His knuckles whitened.
He was seconds away from striking.
Back to the Present,
Inside the Trial of Gods
The mirror sky continued to fracture, the cracks widening like a spiderweb of gleaming fissures across a dimension that should not have been breakable.
Kai stood on the wooden shaft floating endlessly in the reflective sea, crimson eyes glowing like embers carved from blood. The world trembled beneath him, responding to the awakening of his bloodline.
He stared at the creature beyond the mirror.
A corrupted beast.
A Ravager.
A rank far above him.
A monstrosity twisted by the corrupted world energy that had spread after the First Conjurers War. Ravagers were nightmares—creatures that devoured worlds, consumed energy, and warped the land around them simply by existing.
And this one was gigantic.
And swimming through the mirrored sky.
Its many unnatural eyes blinked directly at him, acknowledging him, recognizing him, as though something about his bloodline called out to it.
Kai swallowed.
His curse throbbed.
The chains embedded into his arm shifted, retracting slowly back toward the hand band as though satisfied. The darkness coating him thinned but did not fully disappear, lingering on his skin in patches like stains of shadow waiting to extend again.
Then—
The world changed.
Fire enveloped his right hand.
It swirled around his fingers, twisting, stretching, molding into a shape. The heat intensified until the flame condensed into a bow made of pure crimson fire. Another pulse of energy, and an arrow materialized—its tip sharp, gleaming, unstable.
Kai didn't know why the fire obeyed him.
He didn't question it.
The trial reacted to intent, not thought.
Without hesitation, Kai raised the bow and drew the arrow back. The air trembled. The reflection beneath him rippled violently. Even the creature beyond the mirror halted its movement, its many eyes narrowing.
Kai exhaled.
Then he released.
The arrow shot upward like a streak of dying sunlight. It struck the mirror sky with a thunderous crack, forcing a new fracture to rip across the surface, splitting into several shattering veins.
Another crack.
And another.
And another.
The sky screamed.
The mirror world groaned, collapsing further, revealing a faint outline behind the broken veil—an outline of the beast itself, now visible even without his bloodline gaze.
Kai's heart pounded as the mirror peeled open.
He could see it.
Not the full creature just a fraction edbut even that glimpse was enough to make his blood freeze.
A Ravager.
Watching him.
Waiting for him.
The trial had only just begun.