Kai gasped as he woke up to power raging through his body. He realized now, the enormity of the seed that Chaos had given him. The power he felt within him, it was almost enough to make him feel unstoppable, immortal. Almost.

He suddenly heard sniffing around him and realized that his body had been lying there long enough for wolves to start trying to kill and eat him. He lashed out with four whips of silvery power, instantly killing enemies that four years ago, had almost taken his own life to end.

Yet the slight power he’d just used was barely a drop in the ocean that was currently ripping through both his body and his Soul.

He needed to form a Connection and fast, before this power destroyed him. He entered his Soulscape for the first time in over a year. The emptiness made him flinch in remembrance of the golden cords that once used to blaze across the void, ones that Chaos had called abominations.

He would find out why one day, but today his job was to survive.

Kai saw a sword of silver shining through the darkness of the void. And this time, he chose without hesitation, gripping the hilt of the beautiful blade and letting Chi into his Soulscape.

The power blazed through his Soul, wanting to be released, wanting no part of the restrictions he would place upon it.

Yet, Kai didn’t care what that energy wanted. It would submit to him.

He started with a piece, forcing it into a small chunk and then slowly added on to it. It was difficult work in the easiest of circumstances, but when the energy of a seed of an unknown being of power was raging through your body, slowly taking it to oblivion, let’s just say it was mind numbing at best.

Yet Kai didn’t back down, piece by piece, forcing the energy into a silvery cord that stretched from his Soul to his body. A cord he realized he could condense even more as he was weaving it.

And so he did.

Under the pressure of the power that was killing him the longer he let it rage uncontrollably, Kai forced himself to perfection rather than greatness. For he knew that anything less would mean that he had failed himself.

And so, he condensed the cord and added on to it and finally, what seemed like days later, but what was really only a few minutes in the outside world, a cord of silver finally connected his Soul to his body.

And as the last piece of it was formed, he felt the energy within his body relax some, not enough to make a significant difference, but enough that he knew he was going in the right direction.

He pulled himself out of his Soulscape to circulate the energy, almost starting the Cycle of Breath before realizing that his old Gathering Technique wouldn’t work with the new energy.

He grimaced at the fact and then dove back into his Soulscape, determined to create another Meridian. However, the largest surprise of his newly saved life greeted him.

The energy had already started to form another Meridian on its own, almost as if the template he’d given it on the first one had let it understand exactly what to do on its own. It was terrifying to him that this energy seemed almost alive.

He monitored the creation process as he left his Soulscape once again and focused on his body. And he was fortunate that the energy had acted as it did.

Because at this moment, his body had started to rip itself apart from the unholy amount of Chi running through it. Tears had already started to open up all over him, exuding both blood and silvery smoke from his wounds.

He needed to do something with the energy, something else as it simultaneously worked within him to create, to strengthen him.

It was instinctual, brought by the breakthrough high that he was in, along with the excess energy running through him forcing his mind to strain towards the very godhood that all mortals strived for.

A flash of inspiration and a small amount of luck saved him.

The Forging Realm held three stages: Meridians, Channels, and Core. The First Realm after mortal was a Realm of building, of first forging pathways that could circulate energy from your Soul to your body, letting you use it in battle.

A Core then enabled a Cultivator to hold energy within their body for long periods of time, letting them use it whenever needed. The Core within a Cultivator upgraded itself in every Stage after its own, on its own.

The Realm after Forging was known as the Spirit Realm, also in three Stages. However, the Realm after Spirit had a small half step before it, known as Formation, where a Cultivator trained to give themselves advantages to break through to the next Realm.

Because the Realm after Spirit was much much harder to break into than anything before it and only those with true power were able to manage it.

During this mini Realm, Cultivators had the chance to form an Aura, among other things. Most Cultivators waited until this point to form one because the energy required was astronomical, enough that most impatiently tried to breakthrough to the next Realm without creating one, which was foolish as once you broke through beyond the Spirit Realm, an Aura was impossible to create.

Technically, with enough energy and will, one could create an Aura whenever they wanted before breaking past the Spirit Realm so with this energy within Kai and knowing how strong his own will was, that’s exactly what he did.

He remembered his old Master, Hunter’s teachings. He first looked for an emotion within him, one that represented the whole of his being at that point. It didn’t matter what emotion was used, only that it was the most dominating emotion within him, as different emotions had different effects on an Aura, yet one emotion was no better than another, only its strength mattered.

And although he looked for a positive emotion, searching through years and years of now painful memories to find some happiness, the only emotion Kai kept coming back to was rage.

Rage at the slavers for torturing his body for 12 months. Rage at them for taking everything, especially the only person he’d loved more than life itself. For after the first time she’d been taken, the woman he remembered as Mera had never been the same, a broken husk in her place.

Rage at the green robed man for killing his only friends and forcing the only place he’d ever called home to its knees.

And finally, rage at those who called themselves benevolent gods, for letting something so tragic like this happen.

I rage. I rage at the injustices of this world and I promise, my love. I promise to avenge every experience we’ve faced over the last year. I’ll kill them all!

And then, once he’d forced every single form of his anger into a ball within him, after he’d finally come out of the mini trance he’d been in and realized that there were tears on his face, which he then quickly wiped away with his dirty hands, he continued to create his Aura.

He layered that ball of unadulterated anger with waves of silver Chi. The more power he used here, the better. Not only for his body’s continued health, but also for the potential of his Aura, for the more power he gave it, the stronger it would be, relative to his Cultivation base of course.

And so, he forced every single drop of power he possibly could into the creation of his Aura, until the ball of his emotions was finally layered in a sphere of unbreakable silver energy, so dense that it seemed almost like solid steel.

And then, he let it go.

The last part of Aura creation was the most delicate, and the most dangerous as it required true abandon. The absolute control that the first two parts required were absent in the last one as it required the Cultivator to let go of the sphere they had created and trust that the process had worked.

You couldn’t touch or do anything with it until the formation was complete, or it would destroy the process and stunt your Cultivation growth.

And so, he let go, letting the sphere expand through him until it forced its way out of his body to his surroundings.

It took every ounce of Kai’s willpower to not touch the sphere again, to trust that he’d undertaken the process correctly.

The invisible sphere expanded to a radius of ten feet around him, before finally fading away. And then, suddenly Kai felt an influx of power and realized that he may have fucked up slightly.

For even though he’d managed to form an Aura at both an extremely young age and low Cultivation base, he’d also underestimated how much power the seed he’d been given had held and was still left with almost 60% of the energy within him.

He checked inside and startled as he saw a second and third silver cord had formed within him already, yet the energy showed no sign of slowing down.

And so, he had only one choice left. He had to truly use the energy within him. Use it for the one thing it was made for. Battle.

He slowly loosened the clamp on the energy within him, letting the Chi exude in silvery smoke from his body. Kai directed it towards his hands and it showed up as silver lightning crackled across his knuckles.

His eyes, if anyone saw him were made of pure silvery light, even the whites having been covered by the Chi that ran wild through him.

And as he walked towards the road to follow to where the slaver caravan had stopped for the night, as he took that first real step to his revenge, he smiled.

For the Unbowed Warrior had finally risen. And his rage could never be contained.