The wind outside the dungeon stung Kael's skin like needles.
He stumbled from the rift gates of Hollow Maw, his body bruised, his soulflame barely flickering. Blood crusted around his arms, and the mark on his chest throbbed with a quiet, unnatural rhythm.
He had survived.
Barely.
He dropped to his knees by a stream and splashed water on his face, trembling.
"Too slow…"
He clenched his fists.
"Too weak…"
The whisper of Maldrak stirred in the back of his mind, faint but always there.
Give in. Let it burn. You will never escape me...
Then—
"If you keep feeding it rage, you'll lose yourself before the next moon."
Kael snapped his head up.
An old man stood across the stream, leaning casually on a carved wooden staff. He looked about sixty, with rough brown skin, white hair tied back, and a deep scar cutting across one eye. But it was his presence—calm and unmoving—that froze Kael.
Then Kael saw it.
The old man pulled aside the front of his cloak. There, burned across his chest, was the same mark Kael bore—black, flaming, serpentine.
Only this one didn't pulse wildly.
It was still. Controlled.
"You have the mark," Kael said quietly.
The old man nodded.
"For nearly four decades now."
Kael struggled to his feet. "How are you still... you?"
"Because I learned the truth," the old man said, walking forward. "About the mark. About Maldrak. And about what lies beyond his chains."
He stopped a few feet away. His gaze wasn't threatening. It was tired. But determined.
"What's your name, boy?"
"Kael Morric."
The old man blinked.
Then smiled faintly. "You really are his son."
Kael's eyes widened. "You knew my father?"
"I knew of him. And I know this—your path isn't just fate. It's a choice. One most of us never had."
Kael's breath caught in his throat.
"Can you teach me how to control it?"
The old man nodded slowly.
"If you're willing to suffer more than you already have… then yes. I can teach you how to endure."
Kael didn't hesitate.
"Then show me."
The old man turned toward the mountains in the distance.
"Good. Then we begin tomorrow."
---
– Grand Arcanon Academy
Rui stood beneath a rune-lit training dome, sparring with Kairo. He was fast—too fast. Their wooden blades clashed again and again, until finally Rui flipped back and tapped his chest with a strike.
"Got you."
Kairo blinked, then laughed. "You're dangerous."
"You have no idea," she said with a smirk—but her mind drifted again.
To the boy she hadn't heard from.
To Kael.
Somehow, she could feel it.
He was still alive.
But something was changing.