Morning on the Kahlra Plains was sharp and golden, wind rolling across the tall grass like waves brushing the earth's skin. The village—so alive and alert since the shaman's warning—was already in motion. Warriors jogged between tents, sparring circles opened in the dirt, and elders gathered children for morning chants.
Raygen and Asa finished their meal quickly, cleaned their gear, and stepped outside right as two shadows approached.
A lion-kin warrior and a wolf-kin tracker.
The lion-kin stood broad-shouldered and tall, mane bound by golden rings that clinked when he moved. His expression was stern—but honest. The wolf-kin beside him was lean, ears twitching, tail low with professional focus.
"You two," the lion-kin rumbled. "Today we train."
Raygen nodded. "Lead the way."
Asa's hand hovered near her dagger—not defensive, just habit. Her gaze scanned every warrior in passing, instinctively mapping the environment.
The wolf-kin tracker flicked an ear.
"You'll learn how we hunt, move, and read the Plains. The East stirs, and strength without awareness is death."
"Works for me," Raygen said, cracking his neck.
As they walked through the village toward the open plains, Asa leaned close.
"Try not to copy their entire fighting style on the first day," she murmured.
Raygen smirked. "No promises."
But there was truth beneath her humor.
His system—quiet, mostly dormant—had an uncanny way of adapting to anything he watched or endured. His shard of Void's soul pulsed faintly at the base of his spine, a presence that didn't speak, but breathed. It observed. It learned. It sharpened him without telling him how.
And Asa…
She looked calm. But Raygen knew that beneath her stillness was something much heavier.
The shard of Destruction curled deep within her soul like a coiled storm.
She refused to touch it.
Refused to rely on it.
Afraid—not of the power—but of how easy it was to use.
He didn't blame her.
She had once shattered an entire cavern wall by accident.
---
The Training Grounds
They reached an open stretch of land where the grass had been trampled into a sprawling arena. White stone pillars ringed the edges, carved with claw marks and old scars.
Lion-kin warriors formed one half of the circle.
Wolf-kin made up the other.
Both tribes watched Raygen and Asa with curious respect.
"You will train with both of us today," the lion-kin announced. "Strength and speed. Impact and precision."
"And awareness," the wolf-kin added. "Always awareness."
Raygen took a stance, shoulders loose but ready.
Asa stood with effortless balance, her movements quiet, eyes sharp as needles.
"First test," the lion-kin said. "Show us your basics."
Four lion-kin stepped forward.
Massive. Scarred. Grinning.
Asa glanced sideways. "Basics?"
Raygen smiled. "Their basics, not ours."
The first lion-kin charged Raygen with a roar, claws out.
Raygen didn't flinch. He stepped in, let the man's momentum pass, pivoted, and swept his leg, dropping the warrior flat onto the packed dirt.
Gasps rippled around the ring.
The wolf-kin tracker chuckled. "He learns fast."
Three more lion-kin lunged—together.
Raygen slipped under one punch, parried a forearm, blocked a kick with his shin, and twisted away—no panic, no struggle, just clean movement. Void energy flickered in his nerves, sharpening his reflexes without letting the shard consume his intention.
One lion-kin growled, "He moves like a shadow wearing armor."
The wolf-kin leader nodded. "He moves like something watching through him."
Raygen didn't respond.
He didn't have an answer to that.
---
Asa's Turn
"Asa," the wolf-kin tracker called. "Your turn. Four of ours."
Four wolf-kin stepped from the circle—sleek, fast, and silent.
They fanned out.
Simple formation. Deadly in motion.
Asa's hand hovered over her dagger but didn't draw it.
Good. She knew the destruction shard would whisper for blood if she pushed too far.
The first wolf-kin flickered forward.
Asa moved after-image fast.
A palm strike to the jaw.
A sweep.
A pivot under a kick.
A heel against another's ribs.
She flowed like she had no bones, no resistance.
Her movements didn't overpower—their precision outsmarted.
Within seconds, four wolf-kin lay in the dust groaning.
The circle erupted in cheers.
But the wolf-kin leader narrowed his eyes.
"Asa," he said softly. "You were holding back."
She didn't deny it.
"Your warriors are strong. But my strength is… unpredictable."
Raygen felt the faint tremor inside her—for just a moment. A whisper of the Destruction shard, trying to crawl up from her core.
But Asa swallowed it.
Buried it.
And stepped back into silence.
After sparring came the plains drills—mobility, awareness, and terrain reading.
The wolf-kin led Raygen and Asa through knee-high grass, teaching them to move without disturbing the blades. To detect changes in wind pressure. To follow vibrations underfoot.
Raygen adapted alarmingly fast.
Not copying.
Not mimicking.
Integrating.
His system quietly flashed subtle notifications in the corner of his awareness:
> [SENSE: Pressure Response +1]
[MOVEMENT: Step Efficiency +1]
[AWARENESS: Spatial Mapping +2]
He didn't know the system was learning from the land itself.
He didn't know the Void shard was processing every movement he saw—turning them into potential.
Asa watched him with a faint frown.
She wasn't jealous.
She was worried.
Every time Raygen improved, the Void shard inside him exhaled—just a tiny bit.
As if pleased.
---
The First Sign
They spent hours drilling until sweat coated armor and breath came heavy. When the sun hung lower, the lion-kin led them toward a rocky rise overlooking the eastern plains.
"This," the lion-kin general said, pointing, "is where you learn about threat perception."
Raygen squinted across the horizon.
Wind howled.
Grass bent.
And far, far east—beyond a field of broken stones—he saw it.
A faint smear of color poisoning the horizon.
A sickly crimson patch, like a wound on the land.
Raygen frowned. "What is that?"
The lion-kin's expression darkened.
"That land didn't always look that way."
The wolf-kin tracker added, "Animals avoid it. Spirits refuse to speak of it."
Asa felt something cold crawl along her spine.
A feeling like a dying flame gasping for help.
Raygen felt something too.
Not from the system.
Not from the Void.
From outside.
From the land itself.
Almost like… a heartbeat.
Weak.
Suffocating.
Begging.
"What happened there?" Raygen murmured.
"No one knows," the lion-kin said.
"Whatever tainted it," the wolf-kin added, "still breathes."
Just as they turned back toward the training grounds, the ground trembled.
Soft at first.
Then violently.
Birds exploded into the sky.
Beastkin warriors raised weapons.
Lion-kin roared warnings down the hill.
Raygen drew his blade instantly, the system flaring bright.
Asa stepped beside him, eyes sharp and cold.
The wolf-kin leader's ears flattened.
"…The spirits warned us of tremors."
But this—
—this was no ordinary tremor.
The earth cracked open at the base of the hill.
A pillar of crimson mist shot upward like a geyser.
The grass wilted instantly.
The air thinned.
Heat rolled out in a suffocating wave—like something ancient gasping awake beneath tons of stone.
Beastkin shouted and backed away.
Raygen and Asa didn't move.
The lion-kin general stared, jaw tight.
"That… that's coming from the tainted lands."
Something moved inside the mist.
Large.
Shaking.
Growing.
Raygen tightened his grip.
Asa lowered her stance.
What rose through the crimson haze was not a monster they recognized—
but something the land itself recoiled from.
The wolf-kin leader whispered:
"…This is the omen the shaman feared."
And then—
The mist split open.
A shape lunged upward.
Massive.
Burning.
Drenched in red.
Raygen stepped forward—
Alac stood there invisible to all around, only the siblings knew there was something even more frightening right beside them.
-End of Chapter 16-