Night settled over the training compound like a heavy cloak, silent and absolute. The lanterns in the war room flickered with blue fire—Aether fire—casting shadows that shifted and breathed as if alive.
Kairo sat cross-legged at the center of the stone floor, his chest rising and falling with quiet steadiness, but his mind refused to be still. Too much had happened. Too much that didn't make sense. And Sensi… Sensi's silence was beginning to feel dangerous.
The others gathered around him: Isha, Ruel, Damis, Lani, and the silent newcomer who always hovered a few steps behind Sensi like a shadow no one invited. None of them knew his name. None of them had ever seen him train. Yet he moved with the calm of someone who had already died once and come back colder.
Tonight, Sensi broke the silence.
He didn't speak; he simply lifted his hand.
A blue veil of Aether rippled across the table before them, rising into the air and expanding until the entire room trembled. Lines formed. Continents emerged. Oceans split. The world they knew—Aurion—unfolded like the skin of some ancient beast stretching under moonlight.
Kairo held his breath.
This was no map of lands.
This was a map of gods.
The Aether dimmed, and nine symbols blazed into existence, hanging like stars in the dark.
Hellenic Domain — Land of Storms
Mountains of lightning scarred the illusion. Oceans churned with the roar of Poseidon. Deep beneath the earth, an endless black cavern opened—Hades' dominion, swallowing every sound.
From this pantheon came the Cyclopes, Sirens, Gorgons, Chimerae—monsters carved from the breath of gods.
But Kairo's eyes narrowed.
He recognized the dark Aether pulsing from the symbol of Hades…
The same cold pressure he always felt whenever the silent newcomer passed by.
Sensi did not look at him, but Kairo felt his glance.
Kemetic Dominion — Land of Souls
Golden deserts rose, shimmering with unbearable heat.
Jackal-souled warriors prowled under the moon, eyes glowing violet.
Serpent-blooded Serekh hissed with tongues of fire.
Winged spirits—Kheperu—echoed prayers that sounded like broken memories.
A pulse struck Kairo's chest.
Something inside him responded.
Something old.
He clenched his fist.
Yoruba Dominion — Land of Aṣẹ
The room warmed.
Thunder cracked inside the illusion.
A forest rose—Ifá Forest—its leaves humming with creation itself.
Red-gold lightning danced through the branches as descendants of Sàngó walked barefoot across burning air.
Charm-weavers of Oshun strode across a river that glowed with soft gold.
Steel-skinned warriors of Ogun forged weapons from raw Aṣẹ, shaping destiny like molten metal.
Sensi's eyes softened very briefly.
Just for a heartbeat.
Kairo saw it.
But didn't understand why.
Norse, Shinto, Hindu, Aztec, Celtic…
The illusion shifted again and again—frost giants stomping across Jotun snowfields, Japanese yokai leaping through moonlit forests, serpents of Hindu Aether coiling around temples older than written time, Aztec star-creatures burning with sacrifice, Celtic illusions that made reality bend and twist.
Each pantheon was a world of its own, carrying its bloodlines, clans, monsters, secrets.
But none made Kairo's heart stop like the last one.
The Lost Pantheon
A symbol appeared—
—and vanished.
A blank space.
A cut in the illusion.
A hole in the world.
As if someone had torn a god out of existence and tried to hide the damage.
The air grew colder.
The lantern flames trembled.
For the first time ever, Kairo saw Sensi hesitate.
Just for a heartbeat.
Then the moment passed, and Sensi's voice finally broke the silence—low, quiet, heavy enough to change the air.
"There were nine," he said. "Once."
Kairo leaned forward, breath held.
"What do you mean 'once'?"
Sensi did not answer.
He simply waved his hand, and the illusion shattered into thousands of glowing fragments.
When they faded, only a single sphere of Aether remained—dark, deep, pulsing like a sleeping leviathan.
Something inside Kairo twisted.
A heat and cold at the same time.
A memory he didn't have.
A scream he had never heard.
His heart thudded painfully once, twice—
—and the newcomer, the quiet boy who never spoke, lifted his eyes toward him.
Eyes as dark as the Lost Pantheon's Aether.
Kairo flinched.
Slowly—very slowly—the stranger smiled.
Not cruelly.
Not kindly.
Just knowingly.
As if he had been waiting for this moment.
"Sensi…" Kairo forced his voice to stay steady. "Dual-bloods aren't supposed to exist. Not the way we do. Why are we—why are our Aethers so—"
He swallowed.
"—unnatural?"
Isha turned her head, Ruel's smile faded, Damis stopped cracking his knuckles. Every member of the gang stared at Sensi with the same question burning behind their eyes.
But Sensi only turned his back on them.
"The world is older than your rules," he murmured.
"Older than your blood. Older than the gods you worship."
His cloak swept behind him as he walked, the lanterns dimming with each step he took.
When he reached the door, he paused.
Without turning, he spoke:
"The First Shattering nearly destroyed Aurion. Clans were wiped out. Pantheons fell. Gods bled into the soil and turned it into monsters."
He lifted a hand.
A faint tremor spread through the room.
The map's remnants quivered like broken glass trying to reassemble itself.
"And the reason for that war…"
His voice dropped into something ancient, dangerous.
"…is alive again."
Kairo swallowed hard.
"Who?"
Sensi didn't answer.
But the newcomer did.
His voice was soft.
Too soft.
"The one whose blood runs in your veins."
Kairo's heart stopped.
For a moment, he stopped breathing.
The lamps flickered.
The Aether in the room twisted like smoke.
And the stranger's shadow stretched across the floor—
too far, too long, too unnatural.
Sensi stepped forward and shut down the illusion completely.
"Enough," he said.
But his voice didn't hide the fear behind it.
Kairo had never heard fear in Sensi's voice.
Not once.
The room fell silent.
But everyone felt it.
The shift.
The truth.
The beginning of something terrifying.
Kairo kept his eyes on the blank spot in the map where the Lost Pantheon should have been.
And in the stillness, he whispered:
"…What am I?"
No one answered.
Because the truth was simple:
He was something that should not exist.