The morning mist clung to the earth like a breath unspoken. Dew dripped silently from the leaves above, and the valley held its hush like it was holding its breath.
Astra's eyes snapped open.
A faint tune wound its way through the air—thin, trembling, and achingly familiar. Her chest tightened with instinctive dread.
She scrambled upright, one hand bracing against the bark of the tree beside her. Her eyes swept the clearing, wide and alert. "Kriya?" she called out, her voice hoarse and raw.
Silence.
But the melody returned soft, lilting… haunting. The same melody. The one from that night. The one stained in memory and blood.
Her breath hitched. "No…" she whispered. "It can't be."
It grew clearer with every passing moment, like a thread tightening around her lungs.
She turned.
And froze.
Those emerald eyes met hers, glowing like dying stars in the mist. Her knees gave out beneath her. She crashed backward into the roots, the bark and stone scraping her back, heart clawing at her chest.
"You…" Her voice cracked. "How?! Did You—you find me?"
Huozhen stepped forward from the mist, his presence warping the morning stillness into something sharp and sickening.
"And what about…" Her voice faltered. "What about my family? Rest of them?! Did you kill them—?"
He knelt in front of her, unblinking.
"Yes," he said, each word crisp and hollow. "I did. Trust me… they'd be ash by now."
"No." Her breath caught. "You didn't. You're lying. You're a demon—I'll never believe you!"
Huozhen didn't blink. He simply raised his hand.
Astra didn't feel the touch, but her throat seized—tight, crushing. She gasped. No air came. Her hands flew to her neck, grasping at nothing. Her nails scraped her own skin in desperation, but there was nothing to fight—only the invisible weight tightening with purpose.
"I don't care what you believe," he said, cold and quiet. "But it's your turn. You'll pay for what you did to me."
"Brace yourself," he murmured. "Your death won't be easy."
He rose slowly, lifting her effortlessly into the air as she struggled against the tightening hold. Her vision blurred. Black bloomed at the edges.
Just before the darkness claimed her, he released. Then he flung her. Her body slammed against a tree, the force splitting its trunk in clean in two, as she slumped forward into the dirt.
She was still breathing.
Huozhen's eye twitched.
Without a word, he raised his hand again.
Her body lifted once more—and this time he flung her across the clearing. She slammed into another tree, then another, her body bouncing off bark and stone like a doll caught in a storm.
When she hit the ground again, she barely moved—only coughed, blood streaking down her chin, fingers curling feebly into fists.
Huozhen paused.
A sliver of amusement curled at the edge of his mouth. "Just as I thought. You wouldn't die that easily." His voice was flat, clinical. "I suppose humans do have a certain… stubbornness. Are your bones still in place after that?"
Astra spat blood into the dirt.
He stepped closer, shadows trailing behind him. "Are you angry?"
He tilted his head, watching her struggle to push herself up.
"Good," he said. "Then let me be generous."
He knelt beside her, close enough that his words turned to breath against her bruised cheek. His voice dropped to a low, amused murmur.
"I'll give you a choice. Go on. Beg me to spare your life. I am, after all… the kindest demon you'll ever meet."
Astra's bloodied lips parted—first in a breath, then in a laugh. It was cracked, weak… and furious.
She turned her face away from him. "You killed my family," she whispered. "And you call yourself the kindest?" Her head lolled slightly as her glare met his.
"I'd rather die than beg you."
Huozhen's eyes narrowed, rage flashing like a blade unsheathed.
"So be it," he muttered coldly. "Then die."
He extended a hand toward her. The energy crackled between his fingers, aimed for her throat,A ripple stirred the air behind him Huozhen stiffened. It wasn't just a shift in the wind.
It felt like the air itself had bent.
Before he could turn, a glowing rope of spiritual energy cracked through the trees like lightning. It coiled around his wrist with a hiss, biting deep into his skin. The bind shimmered pale gold. Before he could react, it yanked sharply backward.
He turned fast.
And there, standing at the other end of the glowing tether, was a man in pale robes, a faint wind tugging at his sleeves. His head was tilted slightly lowered and eyes remained shut. Yet there was no mistaking the weight he carried.
The aura around him was dense quiet, but volatile. Like a storm held just beneath the skin. Still his face showed dead calm.
Behind Huozhen, Astra lay crumpled at the base of the shattered tree. Unmoving. Unaware.
Huozhen's gaze snapped to the rope, then to the man again. Something in his blood stirred—burned. The rope around his wrist pulsed with heat, as though recognizing who held it.
"Who are you?" Huozhen growled, voice thick with wariness. "Your aura—why does it burn?"
The man did not answer.
Huozhen stepped forward, fast, boots crushing leaves beneath fury. His aura ignited raw, crimson, unstable. His feet cracked twigs beneath them, and the ground trembled slightly with the force of his aura. He raised his hand to strike, to shatter the space between them—But it never landed.
He halted mid-step.
A sudden snap in the air. It was silence Before—Darkness.
A thick black mist erupted from nowhere and swallowed whole. It surged upward, spiraling around Huozhen in an instant, coiling like smoke made solid. Cold. Weightless. Yet suffocating.
He stopped. His breath caught. The fire in his chest faltered.
Then—A voice.
Low. Not loud. But it struck like iron on bone.
"Step back."
It didn't echo. It didn't need to.
The weight of it settled in Huozhen's spine, paralyzing. His eyes widened as the mist wrapped tighter, brushing against the side of his face like a whisper of death. His steps retreated, slow, unsure. His instincts screamed to fight, but his legs moved without consent—one step back, then another. The darkness retreated with him, as if releasing him with disdain.
When it cleared—The man was gone. So was Astra.
Huozhen stood in the silence, panting, the rope gone from his wrist but the burn still there. His fingers twitched.
"What was that…?" he muttered, scanning the clearing. "That dark energy… that command…"
He scanned the empty space, the trees, The ground still held the mark where Astra had fallen. He stared at it.
"…Where did they go?" he muttered, voice low, shaken. "And that… presence… Could it be…?
His eyes widened. His thoughts raced—repeating the image, the aura, the silence. That man—
"It must be him."
Huozhen stood still for a beat. Then his fists clenched. His eyes burned, emerald flickering with orange. He turned slowly, gaze smoldering, the truth igniting behind his eyes.
"That man…" he whispered, breath catching, "was the Crown Prince."
He said it aloud, like a curse spat into the wind. And in that breath, the air burst around him as his energy flared uncontrollably, flames surging and devouring everything in a ten-foot radius. Leaves curled to ash. The tree Astra had struck earlier collapsed in embers.
He reached up and tore the cloth from his face, hurling it into the fire. The flames eagerly consumed it.
"I had him," he hissed through gritted teeth. "He was right there."
"I let him go… when he was right in front of me." He grit his teeth, the flames rising with every word.
"I'll find him! He can't be far!"
But then—he stopped. Still. Controlled. "No. Not yet."
The fire around him calmed, simmering like embers held in check. He turned slowly, eyes reflecting the flames.
"Not until I finish what I started. I can't afford recklessness now."
He stepped forward, letting the last of the fire trail behind him, leaving scorched footprints in his wake. "…Though I have to admit," he murmured, tilting his head, "that black mist had something… familiar about it."
Then, unexpectedly, a smirk curled across his lips crooked, dark, unhinged. "Whatever that presence was… it won't stop me once I reclaim what i lost. The moment my strength is restored, everything and everyone will burn beneath my fire."
"For that… I must find what was taken from me… my power."