Kai stood silently over the fallen imitation, his breath shallow and uneven. Blood slid down his chin in a thin red line, dropping onto the dirt with soft, wet taps. His one remaining hand lowered slowly, trembling in the aftermath of exertion, but his crimson eyes… those remained sharp, almost too sharp for a thirteen-year-old face.
Then something in the sky caught his attention.
A faint shimmer like glass cracking across the heavens.
The dome of the trial itself.
He felt it calling to him.
He raised his gaze.
And the Crimson Eyes of Truth opened wider.
What he saw,
what he tried to understand,
was not meant for a mortal.
Thousands upon thousands of stars filled the sky.
Not gentle lights.
Not tranquil constellations.
They pulsed,
alive, wrong, breathing.
Each star was an eye.
Each eye was a mouth.
Each mouth whispered.
They burned with truths ancient enough to devour the sanity of gods. And as Kai stared deeper, deeper, deeper trying to peel apart the layers of the false sky something inside his mind tore.
His vision snapped.
His consciousness cracked.
A spasm seized his chest.
He coughed.
A gush of blood spilled from his lips.
His knees buckled and he dropped to the ground, wheezing as the world spun violently around him.
The stars vanished.
The sky smoothed over, retreating into silent darkness.
Kai's hand dug into the dirt as he gasped for breath. The Crimson Eyes dimmed, flickering like dying lanterns.
That was when the heat returned.
A glow.
A hiss.
A pulse of flame.
Fake Kai rose from the ground with a snarl twisting his charred face. Flames coiled around his forearms like starving serpents, tightening and releasing with every inhalation. His skin cracked under the pressure of the heat, yet the fire did not burn him it adored him, clung to him, fed on him.
"Did you truly think you could defeat me?" the Fake Kai whispered, voice bubbling with spite.
He stepped forward.
His heel pressed into the dirt.
Exhale.
And hell opened.
A massive jet of flames erupted from his arm,
white at the core,
red at the edge,
black at the tips,
fire bending the air with its intensity.
Kai moved a half-second earlier than instinct,
guided by the truth in his eyes.
He sprinted sideways, sliding low across the scorched dirt. The burning wave roared past him, heat slicing across his cheek like a heated blade. Sparks rained across the clearing.
Fake Kai dragged the fire sideways, twisting his arm in a vicious arc.
But Kai had already predicted the angle.
He lunged inside the burn path with a brutal palm strike aimed at the imitation's sternum an attack meant to stagger, break, ruin.
Fake Kai intercepted.
Their limbs collided flame spiraling around Fake Kai's elbow.
Heat bit into Kai's skin, searing it.
He grimaced, forced back by the fiery pressure.
His foot brushed against something buried in the dirt.
A faint metallic clink.
A dagger.
Blackened. Cracked.
Still cold.
No flame danced on it.
He didn't hesitate.
Kai grabbed it in a reverse grip, fingers tightening around the charred handle. His stance shifted into something sharp, predatory House Valeria footwork sliding into place with instinct older than memory.
He dashed forward.
He blurred.
The first slash came fast,
Fake Kai deflected with his flaming forearm, sparks snapping.
The second slash came low,
scraping across swirling fire shields.
Kai pressed harder, his attacks turning savage. Elbows, knees, kicks each placed with machine-like precision. His one-handed style was clean, cruel, optimized for killing. He forced Fake Kai backward, step by step.
But the imitation inhaled sharply.
The air vibrated.
His stance widened.
And fire erupted,
not outward,
but upward,
tearing from his core like a living inferno.
BOOM.
A shockwave of flame burst around him, throwing Kai backward like a ragdoll. He hit the ground hard, rolling through dirt and cinders, the dagger nearly slipping from his grasp.
Before he finished sliding,
Fake Kai was already there.
He moved in a flash of fire-fueled speed.
A hand clamped onto Kai's collar.
Fake Kai spun.
The heat radiating off his body made the air shimmer.
The world blurred,
And then:
SLAM!
Kai's back crashed into a thick tree trunk.
The bark exploded outward in splinters.
Pain tore through him like a lightning bolt.
The dagger slipped from his hand and fell uselessly into the dirt.
Fake Kai exhaled slowly.
The flames dimmed around him, materializing into smoke that coiled around his shoulders like dark wings. He kept his hand pressed against Kai's chest, pinning him in place.
He bent down.
Picked up the dagger.
And with unnerving calmness, pressed its cold tip against Kai's lips.
"Burn."
The word echoed through the trial.
And then,
FWOOOM.
The dagger ignited.
Flame traveled down the blade like liquid fire, sliding into Kai's mouth, then bursting outward across his entire body.
Kai's senses vanished into pain.
He burned.
He burned alive.
His clothes ignited instantly.
His skin blistered.
Then charred.
Then blackened.
Then cracked apart.
He tried to scream,
but the dagger pinned his mouth shut.
His jaw could not open.
His throat could only release muffled, desperate sounds.
He thrashed.
Fake Kai's hand held him in place, unyielding.
Fire devoured him.
His flesh melted in streaks.
His nerves ruptured.
His vision shook violently.
He was dying.
He knew it.
His body sagged.
His consciousness dimmed.
He accepted it.
He began to close his eyes,
but then something inside him pulsed.
Not the heart.
Not the lungs.
Not the body.
The eyes.
The Crimson Eyes.
They flared open,
brighter, redder, harsher.
Not glowing.
Raging.
The flames on Kai's skin slowed.
Then twisted.
Then bent.
Then,
flowed backward.
Into him.
Fake Kai froze.
"What—?"
Kai absorbed the flame.
Every lick.
Every spark.
Every drop of heat.
Fake Kai tried to pull away,
too late.
His fire drained into Kai's body.
His flame affinity shriveled like dying embers.
His form wavered.
Cracks of light split across his body.
Piece by piece, he disintegrated into burning dust,
a small flame fragment swirling into the crimson glow of Kai's eyes.
And then,
He vanished completely.
The clearing dimmed.
Silence reigned.
A voice descended from everywhere and nowhere at once.
"Vile Human.
You have passed the trial.
You have stolen a piece of creation itself.
You have become an energy of the world."
Kai dropped to his knees as the trial forest dissolved.
The trees melted into black flames.
The sky folded inward like ink swirling in water.
The ground became a sea of dark fire.
And standing in the center,
A statue of himself.
Cold.
Unmoving.
Watching.
Kai was shocked about what happened but before he could think More he feel something down.
Kai trembled, looking at his hands.
He blinked.
He saw both of them.
Both hands.
Whole.
Restored.
Before he could even smile, the voice returned:
"Receive your reward for the Trial."
Everything shook.
Everything darkened.
Everything waited.