The sky above the Human Kingdom was no longer a canopy of stars; it was a swirling abyss of charcoal smoke and sapphire lightning. The air hung heavy with the metallic scent of blood and the ionized ozone of a thousand magical discharges. In the center of the ruined palace courtyard, the silence was more terrifying than the screams that had preceded it. It was a silence born of absolute devastation.
Jai stood in the center of the carnage, his eyes no longer reflecting the boy who had dreamed of becoming a hero. They were twin pools of cold, flickering sapphire flame. His mind was a turbulent sea of shadows where a single, rhythmic pulse beat like a war drum: Kill them. Kill all of them. Spare no one. They took your world; take their lives.
The bond with the Legendary Blue Griffin had reached its first stage of awakening. The creature, a small but ancient entity of the Sky Sovereign lineage, perched upon Jai's shoulder, its wings vibrating with a frequency that distorted the air. This was a "Soul-Merge" bond—a forbidden level of connection that granted the user the strength to defy the laws of the world at the cost of their own sanity.
Jai's team watched from the periphery, paralyzed by the transformation. James stepped forward, his hand reaching out, but he stopped as a wave of killing intent slammed into him like a physical wall.
"Don't go near him!" James shouted, his voice cracking. "He's entered the Asura State. He's not Jai anymore. If we step into that vortex, he won't see friends—he'll only see obstacles. We either die by his hand, or we are forced to kill him to survive. We stay back!"
Jai began to move. He didn't walk; he glided over the cracked marble, his footsteps leaving scorched blue imprints on the stone. He ignored the warnings of the Dragon Sovereigns. He ignored the dragons circling above. He even ignored Rayn, who stood between him and his target.
Rayn watched his friend approach, his heart heavy with a weight that no amount of King DD's power could lift. He knew that the Dragon Knights behind him—Merin Son and Meilin Yue—were mere seconds away from turning Jai into a pile of ash.
"Jai, stop!" Rayn roared, drawing the God Slayer. The black obsidian blade hummed with a crimson, hungry electricity. "If you take another step, they will kill you! I am the only one who can stop this!"
Jai didn't speak. He lunged.
The speed was inconceivable. Boosted by the Sky Sovereign's Grace, Jai vanished from sight, reappearing a fraction of a millimeter in front of Rayn. His practice sword, now encased in a crystalline blade of sapphire Qi, descended with a force that could have leveled a mountain range.
CLANG!
The collision sent a shockwave that flattened every standing pillar within fifty meters. Rayn's boots sank three inches into the solid marble floor. The "Vortex Boundary"—a sphere of clashing red and blue energy—erupted between them, grinding the air into a vacuum.
Rayn felt the sheer, agonizing grief flowing through Jai's sword. It was a power fueled by the loss of 130 years of family legacy in a single afternoon.
"I have to use it," Rayn thought, his teeth gritted. He activated the Telepathy Artifact Jai had given him one day ago.
"Jai! Listen to me!" Rayn's voice echoed directly into Jai's mind. "I am trying to save you! I have a plan to get you and the team out of here without a scratch. My mother is blinded by her revenge, but I can distract her! Please, drop your sword!"
There was no response. In Jai's mind, there was only the image of his parents being consumed by the dragons. The telepathic link shattered against a wall of pure, unadulterated hatred. Jai roared, a sound that was more animal than human, and launched a whirlwind of strikes.
The two warriors became blurs of light. Rayn used the King DD's Footwork, his body moving like a ghost through the sapphire arcs. He parried, blocked, and redirected, but he never struck to kill. He knew the God Slayer carried the "Soul-Sunder" property; if it bit into Jai's flesh, Jai's very essence would be erased from the cycle of reincarnation.
"You speak of safety while your mother bathes in the blood of my people!" Jai screamed, his voice a ragged howl.
He leaped into the air, the Blue Griffin let out a piercing shriek that shattered the glass of the high towers. A surge of ancient energy flooded Jai's meridians, turning his hair a brilliant, metallic white. Two ethereal blue wings erupted from his back, spanning twenty feet.
"Secret Art: Heavens-Fall Slash!"
Jai descended like a falling star, his blade gathering the atmospheric Qi of the entire kingdom. The pressure was so great it began to crush the floor beneath Rayn before the sword even arrived.
Rayn's red eyes narrowed. The Dragon's Mark on his hand burned with a warning. "If I don't end this now, he will burn his own life-force to nothing."
"Forgive me, Jai," Rayn whispered.
He raised the God Slayer vertically, the crimson thunder focusing into a single, needle-thin point at the tip of the blade.
"Crimson Stillness."
The world went silent. The sound of the wind, the roar of the fires, and even the beat of their hearts ceased to exist. A dome of crimson energy erupted from the point of contact, meeting the sapphire lightning of Jai's descent.
For a heartbeat, the two powers wrestled—a clash of destinies. Then, the silence broke.
BOOM!
The explosion threw both boys in opposite directions. Jai slammed into the base of the shattered throne, his blue wings disintegrating into motes of starlight. Rayn was thrown across the courtyard, tumbling through the rubble until he hit a fallen statue of the First King.
The God Slayer vibrated so violently in Rayn's hands that blood began to seep from his palms. He looked over and saw Jai struggling to stand, using the remains of his broken sword as a crutch. The little blue griffin landed on Jai's chest, chirping a mournful, healing song.
"Jai..." Rayn coughed, his vision blurring. He reached out a hand. "Let's go. I can take you to Earth. We can leave this hell behind..."
Jai didn't look at him with friendship. He looked at Rayn with the eyes of a man who had seen the devil and realized the devil was his brother. He spat blood onto the floor.
"There is no 'us' anymore, Rayn," Jai whispered. "The next time we meet... one of us will be a corpse."
Rena, watching from the balcony, signaled to the Dragon Knights. "Enough of this play. Meilin Yue, bring the Prince. We are leaving for the Ninth Whisper."
Meilin Yue descended from the sky like a bird of prey. But just as her hand reached for Rayn's collar, Beatrice—who had been watching from her chains—let out a scream that vibrated with her very soul.
"ALARIC! NOW!"
Out of the shadows of the crumbling pillars, Alaric appeared. He didn't attack the dragons; he lunged for Jai. In a flash of golden light, Alaric seized the boy and his team.
"Spatial Shift!" Alaric roared.
In the blink of an eye, the entire human team vanished. But they weren't the only ones. When Meilin Yue's hand closed, she caught nothing but air.
Rayn was gone.
Rayn opened his eyes to find himself in a cold, stone chamber lit by ancient phosphorescent moss. The air smelled of damp earth and dried herbs. He was lying on a stone altar, his body screaming in pain from the duel.
"Where... where am I?" Rayn groaned.
"In the Foundation of the First Flame," a voice replied.
He looked up to see Beatrice. She looked ragged, her regal robes torn, but her eyes were sharp. She was no longer chained; the disappearance had been a coordinated ruse.
"Grandmother? What are you doing? I have to go back to my mother!" Rayn said, trying to stand, but his legs failed him.
"No, Rayn," Beatrice said, her voice filled with a desperate love. "You have to leave this place right now. Not just the palace. This planet."
Rayn shook his head. "What are you talking about? I came across the stars for her! I'm not leaving her now!"
Beatrice knelt beside him, placing her hand on his cheek. "Did you see her today, Rayn? Truly see her? That woman is no longer the daughter I raised. She has let the 'Devil Nature' of the Ninth Whisper consume her. If you stay by her side, the God Slayer will do the same to you. You will become a monster that devours worlds. I cannot let that happen to my grandson."
"I don't care about the power!" Rayn argued. "She's my mother!"
"And I am your grandmother," Beatrice countered, her voice firm. She pulled out a small, exquisite artifact shaped like a White Griffin. She bit her own finger, letting her blood drip onto the relic, then seized Rayn's hand. Before he could pull away, she made a small cut on his palm, pressing their blood together against the artifact.
"This is the Sky-Leap Relic," she whispered. "It is an ancient teleportation device that bypasses the Sovereign's tracking. It doesn't go where you want it to go; it goes where the universe needs you to be."
The artifact began to glow with a blinding, iridescent light. The stone room began to tremble as the magic gathered.
"It will take time to recover once you land," Beatrice warned, her voice thick with emotion. "You will be alone. No dragons. No mother. No God Slayer's guidance. You must find your own Dao, Rayn. Not your father's, and not your mother's."
The walls of the underground chamber began to fade as the space-time coordinates shifted. Rayn could feel his body becoming weightless. He saw the ceiling above him vanish, revealing for one last second the silhouette of the palace—and his mother, Rena, looking down into the hole with a face of pure, demonic rage.
Beatrice leaned in. She didn't look like a Queen anymore. She looked like a woman who had finally found her peace.
"I love you, my grandson," she whispered, her tears falling onto his face. "This grandmother will always be proud of the boy who refused to kill his friend. Go! Live!"
She pressed a soft, final kiss to his forehead.
"GOODBYE, RAYN!"
A pillar of white light erupted from the underground chamber, shooting through the palace and into the heavens. When the light faded, the altar was empty. Beatrice stood alone in the dark, her strength spent.
Rayn was gone, cast into the unknown reaches of the multiverse, leaving behind a burning kingdom and a mother who had become a god of shadows.