Gawain Azel woke from unconsciousness with a gasp, his mind trying to convince him he was still in a fight. He almost fell off the bed he was on as his muscles refused to respond to his clear commands.

And then, a strong hand pushed his chest back into the bed its bearer said, “Easy, boy.”

Gawain finally settled back and took in his surroundings. He was in the room he’d been given at the Arena, with the same simple bed layout that the rest of the competitors also had.

A man in white robes and the same man who’d pushed him back down onto the bed stood at his left while his cousin occupied a chair to his right. He also caught sight of his trusty axe resting in the corner of the room.

The man in white was speaking to his cousin.

“Just some Meridian strain and a depleted Core from energy overuse. I’ve given him two Recovery Pills, but honestly, enough rest and he should be more than fine by tomorrow.”

The man then grabbed a pouch from the bed and left the room as Alyssia thanked him.

After he left, Alyssia grabbed a cup full of water and held it to his lips, helping him gulp down the entire cup.

Gawain then put his head back down and relaxed, before saying, “I believe you now, cousin.”

Alyssia just stared at him, confusion etched across her features and so he continued.

“Your story, from six years ago, I didn’t believe it at all. I know you never told anyone until me a couple of days ago but I spent the last two days trying to find anything about that boy, about anything that happened.”

Gawain took a deep breath before continuing. “Yesterday, I received a report from Novan that told me that six years ago, three bodies had been found in a back alley with sword marks on them. The most likely reason, and what the Novan guards blamed it on, was gang violence, but it was still filed away as a special case since no gang claimed the bodies and because of the precise way in which they were killed.

And even then I still refused to believe you, because how could a twelve year old child from the villages have mastered any of the Sword Forms?”

Alyssia went to interrupt him as he paused for a second but he quickly cut her off.

“No, no listen to me. When you told me a couple of days ago that the same person in the Testing that had scored third on the Test of Endurance was the same person from years ago, I once again scoffed and refused to believe you.

And then, when we learned his name from Executive Yannick, you also began to doubt that he was the same person from years ago even though you still wanted to believe it.

However, I believe we’ve both been acting extremely foolish. Tell me, what name did Executive Yannick give us?”

Alyssia, still confused at why her cousin would bring this up but still without the cold demeanor on her face that she normally adopted around everyone else and around Gawain when she was angry, said, “Mordekai Eritos.”

“Right, and what name did the boy give you all those years ago?” Gawain asked her.

Realization dawned on her face as she whispered, “Kai.”

“They’re the same name, just shortened,” she continued excitedly, smacking her head at her oversight.

“Exactly,” Gawain said.

He looked up and saw his cousin still staring at him, her face still tilted in clear lack of understanding.

“But even then, Gawain, why do you believe me? You said yourself that the twelve year old with mastery over any of the Forms was impossible so then what happened in that fight that made you agree with me?”

Gawain sighed and gathered his thoughts before he dropped the explosive information.

“Do you remember, Alyssia, how long it took me to master a single form back when I was younger?”

“I do,” she answered him. “You’d be on the practice field for hours at a time, running through the same moves over and over again while I’d be running around the castle.”

“Exactly. It took me two and a half years to master the Sixth Form of the Axe. Two and a half years of grueling hard work and determination at the level of a mortal and because of that, I was heralded as a prodigy of the axe. And now, I’ve been practicing the axe for almost thirteen years and I’ve mastered the Ninth Form. A prodigy they say I am, and the only Cultivator in our generation better than me at a given weapon is Cassius.”

“Even then,” the large man continued. “He is only halfway through mastering the Tenth Form.”

“I still don’t understand,” Alyssia said, as her cousin paused for a few moments.

“You’ve had the power of Roar of the Lion used against you. And you saw Mordekai block it with just the power of his sword.”

“I thought it was most likely a Defensive Artifact, a flawed one since it couldn’t fully block it,” she said.”

“You thought wrong,” Gawain said. “He sliced through the Technique with just the power of his sword and when it hit my axe, I could see a semi transparent, white film surrounding its blade.”

Alyssia gasped in shock and leaned backwards, yet unlike the horror he himself had experienced during his fight with the monstrous man, she only had awe in her eyes.

“Sword Earth,” she whispered.

“And that isn’t even the end of it. Cousin, you’ve seen the power of Pride of a Lion used twice now, counting today. Tell me the method you would use to survive that Technique.”

She shook her head once. “Maybe the bell, but most likely I’d resort to my bond with Fasa, no matter how untested my connection to her still is.”

“Yes, a Spirit, yet we both forget that he’s only Rank 1 of the Core Stage. Tell me, what are your thoughts on his defense against my Technique.”

Alyssia gathered her thoughts, before answering, “You poured the rest of your energy into the attack, correct?”

At her cousin’s quick nod, she continued. “Three things in conjunction then. I believed at the time that he must’ve owned two defensive Artifacts, one of them at the same level as my Bell. At the same time, he must’ve used an attacking Technique, but one focused on your Technique formed lion. Now, knowing what I do, I assume that he cut through the Technique with his Sword Earth, and shifted the momentum of energy that would’ve dissipated either into himself, which would be levels beyond dangerous and deadly, or into the ground, which doesn’t make sense as there were no uncontrolled lashes of Heavenly Energy or large craters on the Arena floor. And even then, for the life of me I cannot understand how he just casually reached into your Technique and caught your axe.”

And this was where her mind as the most promising Cultivator of this generation came into play. Yet even then, she was unable to fathom what had occurred in her cousin’s battle.

“Right, except even Sword Earth has its limits and most definitely could not have sliced through Pride of the Lion. And, he also had no defensive Artifacts at all. No, the truth is that ‘youngest to ever wield Sword Earth’ isn’t the only record he holds. You see, he didn’t break through my most powerful Technique with another Technique or his weapon. He broke it with his will.”

Confusion, then realization, then a resounding disbelief slammed into his cousin.

“Yes, Alyssia, the monster wields an Aura.”

***

Elder Kenshi led Mordekai to Executive Yannick’s room. He’d spent the last few minutes wracking his brain, unable to understand just how the boy behind him had done what he’d just seen.

He’d even run multiple scenarios through his head, from the boy behind him owning a multitude of immensely powerful Defensive Artifacts, to an all powerful Technique that could slice through other Techniques with ease. The latter was a nonsensical explanation, but even though he could run through a scenario with the information he had on the boy behind him, he could not figure one thing out.

How had he escaped unscathed?

He knew from the power of the royal cousin’s Technique, that even a normal Cinder in the Spirit Realm would have to use more than a chunk of energy to defend it, yet even then, the Cinder would be unable to escape without at least a few injuries.

Yet the boy at the Core Stage had somehow not only defended the powerful Technique, but seemingly done so with ease, even ending up with his opponent’s weapon at the end of it.

Yes, Elder Kenshi sorely regretted not calling on his true Aura of Broken Dreams to observe the fight, instead relying on a basic Spiritual Sense. However, who would have predicted this outcome?

Yet somehow, his Master, the man who’d raised him through the ranks of the Uroboros Sect, had seen something, something more than the monstrous potential of the Sword Earth within the boy behind him, something that had given his Master, Executive Yannick, the one emotion Elder Kenshi hadn’t seen on his face in a very long time. Fear.

Kenshi turned the corner of the hallway they were in and quickly rapped on the nearest door, glancing at the boy as he did so.

Even now, there was no exhaustion on his face as would be normally present after a fight like that. And from his own Spiritual Sense, Kenshi could see that Kai’s Core was somehow still almost a third full, which almost made him recoil.

Whatever he is, it cannot be human, the Advanced Elder thought to himself.

He then opened the door and swept into the room, Kai following behind. It was a modest room, by the normal standards of a Cultivator of Yannick’s power.

The man himself sat on the ground on a mat, legs crossed and eyes closed, as if in deep contemplation.

Seconds passed, and then his eyes opened, pools of darkness staring out at his two guests.

And then, a crushing pressure slammed down across the entire room, a red film permeating throughout.

Elder Kenshi almost fell to his knees before calling upon his Aura of Broken Dreams, covering himself in a bubble of energy that almost looked like a shattered mirror.

He could see the red Aura generated by his Master, the Executive’s Aura of Ruin combined with his Coresoul Cultivation forcing Kenshi to use the full power of his own Aura to defend.

And then, he saw the biggest surprise of them all, the reason for the victory of the young man next to him. Realization and then the same horror and awe that had crossed his Master’s face during the fight crossed his own, as he saw a silver colored film coat the young man’s body.

Obviously he did not have the power to create a bubble like the one Kenshi had formed, yet the Aura did just enough so that the pressure from the Executive would not harm him.

Chaotic waves of darker silver crossed across Kai’s body and small sparks of silver lightning flashed across his arms.

Yes, not fully formed and unrefined it might be. Yet, it was an Aura nonetheless.

And then suddenly, as soon as the Aura had appeared, Executive Yannick pulled it back into himself.

“I apologize, young friend,” Elder Kenshi’s Master said. “You see, I had to know for sure.”

Yet Mordekai did not seem upset or angry. Instead, there was more of a calculating look on his face, one that Kenshi had not seen on his own face in the decades since he’d been stuck as a Blaze. He had not felt that drive of advancement that he now currently saw on the young man’s face ever since he’d hit this blasted bottleneck.

“You see, my young friend,” Yannick continued, rising to his feet. “The reason I called you here after your fight is because I am impressed. Everything I’ve seen from you from the beginning of this Testing has been fantastic. This fight was just the largest example of your immense potential.”

“Thank you, sir,” Kai said, confused still at his summons.

Yannick sighed as he walked over to them. “You see, this Kingdom has a long history, one filled with battle and bloodshed and chaos, one that ended in the Royal family carving out a place for peace. A peace that I believe will soon be threatened.

Politics, you see, are the only thing most of the old fools of this Kingdom are concerned with nowadays, to the point that they refuse to see any sort of danger until it kicks them right in their faces.”

The Executive walked over to a table near the side of the room, pouring himself a glass of red wine before continuing.

“There is something coming, my young friend, a chaos I believe will shake the Kingdom to its very roots, one that originates from within the very foundations of our home. There are conspirators, working in the dark to ensure that the balance of power will soon shift, and not for the better.

And the main issue is, it seems that this poison has seeped into our Sect. There are powerful people within our very School that work to destroy the peace we’ve worked so hard to create in the past.”

“And so,” Yannick said, turning back towards them. “I tell you this not because you can do anything just yet to help, because you are definitely nowhere near powerful enough, but just as a warning, because I see your potential, and one day, I will ask for your help. But for now I only have one question for you. If Uroboros and by extension, I, were to give you the resources and training you needed, what would you do with them?”

Kai’s dark eyes stared unflinchingly back at the powerful man as he answered.

“Advance by any means necessary.”

***

Kai had left the room minutes earlier and only Kenshi and Yannick still remained.

“Master, why did you tell him?” Kenshi asked.

Yannick sighed before answering. “The truth is, I don’t know myself. There is something about him, something more than just his overwhelming power and potential that just draws me. I just have a feeling that he will be of immense significance in the future. If we can just bring him to our side soon, it would be for the better, because you know as well as I that our enemies would either try to recruit or kill him.”

“I assume you intend to have me choose his team and train him then,” Kenshi said.

“Yes, I do, and I will make sure that no other Elder is able to.”

“And what if the team he is on is not the team we want? It would not be wise to neglect the rest of his future team and train only him as I believe that would only make him stand out more.”

“I agree, my friend,” Yannick said. “But don’t worry. I have it from a very good source that the team that he’ll be on will be perfect for our uses. We aren’t the only ones interested in him after all. Just the most powerful ones.”

“Then I agree Master,” Kenshi said, bowing. “I just hope the resources and training we provide him will produce a successful result.”

“An Aura at under both 18 years of age and under the Spirit Realm,” Yannick said to his one time disciple, eyebrow raised. “Don’t worry, he has potential I’ve never seen before, even from our Sect Leader. He’s done this much with next to nothing. Imagine if we give him the resources that a prodigy like him deserves.”

And Kenshi did imagine. And he was only able to come up with one answer.

“He’ll become a monster.”