The mayor was kneeling on the ground, body covered in wounds, some superficial while others were deeper and would need to be treated soon. However, it was the man standing above him that made Kai pause.

The man in question was tall, at six and a half feet, a full half foot taller than Kai. He was covered in the furs of different beasts, some that Kai recognized. He held a large double sided axe, and had black war paint on his face.

Kai could also sense that this man was at the Core Stage of the Forging Realm, maybe only a half step from the Spirit Realm, which meant that at the moment, this monster of a man was the most powerful being in the village.

This also made Kai fear for Hunter as he hadn’t been able to sense a single hint of power from the green robed man back at their home, which meant that that man was much more powerful than he had originally thought.

However, the man in front of him could still obliterate everyone left in the village on his own.

“Admirable,” the man who Kai assumed was the leader of this group of slavers said in a rumbling voice. “A man like you, a full Stage under me. The fact that you were able to hold out even this long is admirable.”

“It is unfortunate then,” the man continued. “That your life must end here. But fear not, the axe you fall to will kill greater men than you, and one day, you will be just a blip in the legacy of the great Devar.”

The man known as Devar raised his axe, ready to end the mayor’s life and time seemed to slow down for Kai. And as the axe came down, as Mera started to scream for her father’s life and Cohen ran towards them, knowing he wouldn’t make it in time, inspiration struck.

Any weapon a Cultivator chooses to use has its own set of 10 Forms. Hard to learn and even harder to then string together, the Forms help weapons users learn perfect control over their own body, yet Kai, from day one had gone above and beyond even that.

Hunter had pushed Kai to not only learn the Forms perfectly, but then use his control to change the Forms for his own usage. Things like slight modifications in battle and strings of different Forms had become second nature to Kai. But the main reason Hunter had pushed him so hard was because of the Sword Earth.

Sword Earth Mastery came after mastery of the Forms, yet not all those who had mastered the Forms could break through the veil and become a Sword Earth Master. It took a perfect control of your weapon and a moment, a small moment of inspiration to trigger a breakthrough.

Through the winter, as Kai’s Cultivation had stalled, he’d tirelessly worked to perfect his mastery of the rest of the Forms, and at this moment, that hard work payed off in a big way.

The veil finally opened and power ripped through Kai, not energizing him unfortunately, but making him more powerful all the same. He let it flow through him, towards his hands and then out to the blade he was gripping, feeling the external power of the Sword Earth mysteries flow over the sword, giving it a sharper edge.

And then, focusing on the Heavenly Energy that he’d been circulating for what felt like ages, feeling the strain on his Meridians, Kai pushed it all towards his feet and forced his body forward.

And then, time started to flow normally again.

The axe came down, yet Kai was suddenly in front of its fall, glowing steel held above his head.

The sword cut through the head of the axe like butter, the cut half falling behind him as the rest of it slammed into the ground with a large boom.

“A little presumptuous, isn’t it, to name yourself after the god of War?” Kai said, a smirk on his face. He just hoped the frantic beating of his heart wouldn’t give away his false confidence.

The large man narrowed his eyes dangerously. “What’s this? A whelp chooses to challenge me?”

“This whelp just split your axe in two,” Kai said, mockingly. “The same axe that you say will one day kill ‘greater men’”

Kai didn’t give him a chance to answer, whipping his blade forward in an attack that would’ve caught anybody in even the Channels Stage unawares.

Unfortunate then, that the slaver was almost in the Spirit Realm as the large man’s almost inhuman awareness and reflexes had him letting go of his axe and jumping backwards, out of range of Kai’s glowing weapon.

The War god’s namesake widened his eyes at Kai, not knowing that the young man was riding the high of a breakthrough that could come crashing down at any moment.

However he wouldn’t let something small like danger stop him from doing what needed to be done.

Kai whipped forward, putting himself on the attack, not willing to let his opponent get even a chance to retaliate.

He used the Forms with his more powerful weapon, stringing together an impressive set of attacks that was somehow pushing back a Culivator almost in the Spirit Realm.

Yes, the slaver had most likely used most of his energy fighting Mera’s father, and Kai was dangerously riding the high of a breakthrough, yet all the same, he was still pushing the other man back.

None of the attacks had yet hit, of course, but with every swing of his sword, he seemed to get closer and closer to doing so.

Right there.

And finally, Kai was able to bait his opponent to dodge into the exact position where he would be vulnerable to a quick follow up. And as his sword whistled through the air towards the large man’s heart, he stumbled over a piece of debris and it all came crashing down.

The giddy feeling of his breakthrough into Sword Earth mastery was suddenly ripped out of him, leaving him feeling barren. The Heavenly Energy that he’d been abusing was also suddenly ripped away at the same time.

Every single wound he’d taken, bruises from training this morning, scratches from different plants as he’d sprinted through the woods to get back to the village, and cuts he’d received from his battles all slammed into him with full force, staggering him, and leaving him vulnerable.

And then, on top of that, a pressure pushed onto his shoulders, one he resisted at first and then succumbed to as he went to his knees.

Kai looked up and saw that the man in front of him was no longer the slaver. Instead he now faced the green robed man he’d seen about to fight Hunter, and a foreboding feeling started to fill him as he saw the man unharmed.

He could also see Cohen, Mera, and the mayor all kneeling, fear present on all of their faces as they looked towards the green robed man.

And then, just as suddenly as the pressure had arrived, it disappeared, leaving Kai gasping for breath.

“Hmm,” he heard the man murmur, “so my Aura still hasn’t been fully formed yet. Shame, but they did say it might take some more time.”

Kai then heard Cohen suddenly gasp, “Spiritlord.”

The man’s eyes flashed and he turned his head, snapping an arm out. A dagger made of black smoke flew out of his hand and ripped through Cohen’s neck, decapitating him in one motion.

Kai saw Mera flinch in horror as he watched in almost agonizing silence. His heart thundered, every beat seeming louder and louder in his ears.

He looked back towards the man’s face, the cruel smirk etched back onto it, as if the very thought of bringing more pain to them amused the man.

He first mouthed the word a few times and then finally whispered it.

“Hunter?” Kai asked, pleading for a miracle.

If possible, it seemed that the man’s smirk twisted even further as he dropped the cloak he was holding in his right hand.

And there it was. The sawed off head of the closest thing Kai had had to a father, lifeless eyes staring into the empty abyss.

The world seemed to crash around Kai as both the death of his mentor and his best friend slammed into him in rapid succession. A choked sob escaped him, as he stared at the decapitated head.

If only I’d been stronger. If only I stayed to help. If only, if only, if only…

Rational thought seemed to escape him, and all of the choices he’d made, the set of decisions that had led him away from Hunter’s clearing all came into sharp focus.

He almost broke right then, teetering on the plank of his mind over the waters of insanity, before he caught sight of Mera’s face. No, for her he needed to stay whole. For her, he would stay strong.

The tears, the pouring out of his emotions would come later, when he had time. He took all of his pain and his fear and his despair and wound it up in a ball and shoved it to the corner of his mind. He didn’t have time for such things. Not yet.

He looked up, right into the blue eyes of the green robed man, mouth set in a determined line as he started to circulate energy through his Meridians. It didn’t matter that the ropes connecting his Soul to his body were starting to fray and develop small tears from his overuse today. It didn’t matter that his body had been abused even more than his Meridians, that his Spirit wanted him to fall over and give up.

It didn’t matter because Hunter had never taught him to surrender. And pain, he was no stranger to pain. Not in this life, nor another.

So he pushed it aside and let Heavenly Energy fill him, feeling the immense strain on every single part of him.

“Oh, so the boy does still have some spunk in him,” the green robed man said, looking somewhere above Kai. “I’m sure it will be quite fun for you to break him.”

Alarmed, Kai started to spin his head around, but cold metal suddenly wrapped around his neck and with a snap, the Energy he’d started to circulate fizzled out. He reached out for his Meridians and though he could sense them, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get even a drop of Energy to go into them.

“Its futile, whelp,” Devar’s voice said from behind him. “The collar is designed to block anyone under the Core Stage from using Energy. You’re helpless now.”

The thread of physical energy Kai had been holding onto extinguished along with his final hope of a miracle. He fell to the ground helpless as the slaver and the noble started to discuss something, as if nothing had even happened.

And as he faded away into the darkness, he had only one thought.

Why? Why must there always be those that choose to only bring chaos?