Back to the past
***
The explosion ruptured the forest like a collapsing star.
Shards of scorched bark whirled through the air. Black roots snapped. Leaves fluttered in a spiral of smoke. And through the shockwave, a young body of a thirteen-year-old Kai was flung backward like a broken doll.
His back slammed into a towering tree, the impact deep enough to splinter the trunk. His breath left him in a sharp gasp, blood spraying from his lips.
He didn't even get to lift his head.
A shadow fell over him.
A second Kai his mirror, his mockery, his executioner stood there, staring down at him with eyes that were crimson but wrong. Not born eyes. Manufactured ones. A hollow imitation of a lineage he did not possess.
Fake Kai tilted his head, expression flat yet mocking.
His dagger rose slowly fire crackling across its edge like a starving beast licking steel.
"I will end your pathetic life."
The downward slash came fast.
Too fast for a weakened, one-armed child.
But something happened.
A sound soft yet horrifying like a bone cracking in reverse.
Kai's remaining hand moved.
Not just moved blurred.
It shot upward with a speed no battered body should have held, no injured limb should have produced. His palm crashed into the fake Kai's forearm, redirecting the killing stroke.
And then—
BOOM.
The strike was so clean, so precise, so violently perfect that Fake Kai's body lifted off the ground. He flew backward, smashing through two twisted trees before skidding across the dirt, flames sputtering from his blade.
Silence settled.
Kai remained slumped against the shattered tree he had crashed into.
One arm missing at the shoulder, blood dripping in steady rhythm.
Hair hanging over his face like a veil of grief.
Tear-soaked eyes hidden beneath shadow.
Wind blew gently through the clearing, carrying the scent of burnt soil and leaves.
Fake Kai staggered to his feet, coughing blood.
His chest heaved.
His glare was pure hatred.
The real Kai finally spoke.
His voice was calm.
Almost… tired.
"You know… since I got to this trial, I've been questioning myself."
He pushed his body upright.
Every movement was agony.
Blood ran freely down his side.
"My curse, My affinity. What elements I'll awaken. All that nonsense."
He sniffed once, wiping nothing from his face.
"I didn't notice the other houses' schemes."
Fake Kai froze. His expression cracked for a moment.
Kai continued, voice low and steady:
"I mean even if they want our house to die, even if they pretend otherwise we are still House Valeria."
He raised his head.
Hair slid away from his face.
His eyes still normal in color glimmered with something old.
"And there is a reason every house fears our blood lineage."
The wind stilled.
"So why wouldn't they try to use this trial to kill me?"
His jaw tightened.
"I guess the corruption you put on my suit before the trial… was meant to trigger this."
Fake Kai's lips curled.
But then the real Kai stood.
His single hand clenched into a fist.
And though his other arm was gone…
something else filled that void something ancient, hereditary, and merciless.
"Thanks to all of you…"
Kai's voice dropped into a cold whisper.
"…I finally awakened my blood lineage."
His eyes shifted.
The brown darkened.
Red bled into the whites.
Crimson spread outward like a rising tide.
Black rings etched themselves at the edges of his irises like circling storms.
The Crimson Eyes of Truth.
The true blood of Valeria.
Power rippled out from him silent yet crushing.
Air warped.
Shadows bent.
The corrupted forest recoiled.
Fake Kai took a half-step back before he realized it.
Kai didn't give him another second.
He moved.
A straight-line burst of speed so sharp it carved a groove into the dirt.
Fake Kai roared, igniting his dagger fully, flames wrapping around metal like molten serpents. Their heat twisted the air.
He swung.
Kai met him head-on.
Their bodies collided in a storm of motion.
The clearing shook.
The flaming dagger hissed toward Kai's chest, bright enough to burn the shadows from the trees. Kai pivoted,
foot sliding back,
body dropping low,
center of gravity tightening like a coiled predator.
He moved with an eerie fluidity, his one arm flexing as if his missing limb had never existed.
Fake Kai slashed again faster, angrier.
Kai slipped inside the swing, his shoulder slamming into Fake Kai's ribs with bone-popping force.
CRACK.
The sound echoed.
Fake Kai staggered, coughing another spray of blood.
Flames whipped past Kai's cheek as the imitation retaliated with a furious sweep. Kai bent backward under it, the burning edge passing inches above the tip of his nose.
He spun on one foot, sweeping low,
his ankle sweeping Fake Kai's legs clean out from under him.
Fake Kai toppled sideways, breath hitching.
Before his body even touched the ground.
Kai was already there.
Crimson eyes predicted the fall with perfect clarity.
His leap was controlled, violent, precise.
He drove his knee into Fake Kai's chest mid-air, folding the imitation like paper.
Another burst of blood shot upward.
Kai's hand snapped forward, fingers clamping around the fake's flaming wrist. The heat scorched his skin.
But he did not flinch.
He twisted.
Hard.
The blade veered downward, redirected by sheer force.
It stabbed the earth, sending a plume of dirt and smoke upward instead of carving into Kai's flesh.
Fake Kai snarled, struggling, flames sputtering chaotically.
Kai's grip tightened.
His teeth clenched.
And then his elbow descended.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Each blow slammed into Fake Kai's face with surgical savagery.
The third hit cracked something.
The flaming blade wavered.
Kai shifted.
His feet planted, hips rotating.
And he unleashed a spinning back-kick that split the air.
His heel struck Fake Kai's jaw with a meaty THUD.
The imitation was lifted from the ground.
He flew backward, crashing through the dirt and skidding several meters until he finally stopped.
The flaming dagger clattered from his hand, rolling lifelessly across the earth.
The flames dimmed.
Smoke curled in thin tendrils.
Silence reclaimed the forest.
Kai stood there,
one arm gone, body battered, blood dripping yet his stance was eerily calm.
Breathing slow.
Shoulders loose.
The Crimson Eyes of Truth glowed faintly, dissecting every twitch in Fake Kai's crumpled form.
This was no berserk awakening.
It was clarity.
Cold, divine clarity.
Kai exhaled softly.
Wind brushed past him, carrying the scent of scorched soil, burnt fabric, and the metallic tang of blood.
His gaze remained steady.
Unblinking.
Unforgiving.