Silver sheets filled the air as rain fell, cleansing the ash over the dilapidated city.
Kaen was being watched by a hos, someone anonymous from higher up a ledge above the wreckage.
A girl.
Draped in midnight blue silk, a fox-like creature sat upon her shoulder, its tails swirling and intertwining around her neck. Her gaze glowed faintly and one was silver while the other was gold.
"Whispered. "The relic chose him."
She continued to purr. "He shouldn't be alive."
"He is now, and I know. The balance just shifted."
Leaning against the ruins to alleviate the ache in his ribs, Kaen felt each step burn requiring him to push himself more. Every part of his body begged him to stop, but he didn't have the luxury of the time until after he disappeared before the Academy.
He halted upon passing a mirror shard lodged within the collect rubble.
And froze.
In the shard Kaen noticed his reflection, albeit older. A kingdom laid beside him in ash alongside the burned corpses. His body was clad in flames, chains, and his eyes glowed like embers while his armor radiated much more. A kingdom burned behind him.
He blinked.
My breath is caught. Is that… what I become?
One word slipped his mind when he heard his name being called.
"I'm over here," he said.
She stood behind him, distant and unreadable.
Kaen said without direct intent, "I can just burst into flames right now."
"You're bleeding. And exhausted. If I wanted to do anything malicious, you'd already be ash," she replied.
He sounded hesitant. "What about you?"
"You touched something beyond your scope," she answered. "And I know what is going to happen next."
The fox-like creature yawned. "You all heard her, right? She's Lira. Seer of Broken Fates. She has a tragic backstory and everything."
"That's enough, Vex," Lira says.
Kaen unlike the rest was confused. "What's in it for you?"
After giving him a scrutinizing look, Lira replied, "Because I once saw the consequence of not helping."
The mark of three different relics that appeared like sigils towards glowing runes burned her arms. No... it can't be. Her cloak was being lifted up thanks to the wind.
"No one can function пара the bears more than one relic," Kaen expalined.
Lira responded: "No one wield none."
CRACCK!!
A figure adorned in bronze armor with an eclipsic jagged patterned helmet stepped forth. It's cold mechanized voice gave Khean his true identity.
> Fracture bearert located. Target: Kaen of the Shadowless Bloodline.
"Run," Lira commanded.
"I just attained this power," Kaen argued. "Fighting is an option."
"Stop making excuses," she countered. "You don't know the truth about your existence! He's not a soldier that you thought—Vortex Registror."
With a spear charged with energy from gravity, the armored foe raised his arm.
Kaen attempted to raise his Archeflare blade—only to find it trembling and flickering.
The Hunter dashed forward, moving with alarming speed at the same time.
Wind, ice, and sound coalesced around Lira's sigils and suddenly she moved like a storm.
Metal and magic clashed in mid-air as she intersected the Hunter's path.
"Get out of my way, Kaen!" she commanded, brandishing a blade and a shield of runes. "If you think this is your story, then live long enough to tell it!"
His breath was no longer normal; fire had found a home in his lungs.
Kaen tightened his hands into fists. The impulse coursing in him was foreign and intuition told him to pull back.
The scream that escaped his lips was primal.
Without any warning, a shockwave blasted from his frame, hurling the Vortex Hunter against a building like a doll.
"Well this is new," said Lira as she touched down beside him. "Seems like you're not entirely useless."
The anguish twisting his face relaxed him enough to reply, "You're pretty intense, huh?"
Lira retorted, "You haven't seen anything yet, flame boy."
In a distant void wrapped with light and darkness lay a throne room where a being of antiquity sat statuesque. Before it, a dozen shadowed kneeling figures rest like statues, perfectly still.
One spoke:
"Ember's awake, my Lord."
Flames within flames sparked to life as the ancient being opened its eyes—
"Unleash the second eclipse."
"Then the game begins."
End of Chapter 3