The wind whispered along the mountaintop, thin and sharp like a drawn blade. Zaine sat cross-legged at the highest peak of the Third Floor, a ring of blue energy humming around him, faint like mist and steady as breath. His eyes were closed, body still, mind drifting between steel and silence.
The air pulsed.
Then, a presence approached.
"Sir Zaine!" a voice called out, echoing across the stone.
Zaine exhaled slowly. The azure energy swirled once more before fading into his skin. He opened his eyes—calm, cold, and focused.
A young scout jogged up the slope, panting. His armor was scuffed. His boots cracked with dried blood.
"We've… we've lost connection to the Second Floor relay teams. All our messengers stopped reporting two days ago. And… there's something else. Something worse."
Zaine rose to his feet.
"Speak."
The scout hesitated. "Rumors say Danjuro… he turned. Led a revolt. Killed Elder Fred. Formed something called the Church of Dawn."
Zaine didn't blink. He simply turned and began descending the cliffside path.
The journey down took minutes, not hours. Every step of Zaine's was deliberate, controlled. He didn't run. He didn't need to. The mountain parted for him like it understood something had shifted.
The new Arm Hearts Headquarters stood like a fortress-temple carved from the mountain's roots.
[THIRD FLOOR – ARM HEARTS HEADQUARTERS]
Thick walls of stormstone and blackwood surrounded the compound, reinforced with spiritual arrays carved into the foundation. The gates were always open, but guarded—disciples in red and grey robes sparred in open-air courts while war banners fluttered above. Martial halls lined the inner circle, each devoted to a different style or legacy. The central building stood taller than the rest—part war room, part shrine, part command post.
Inside, the scent of incense mixed with oiled steel.
Zaine's boots echoed as he entered.
Alfred stood near the heart of the complex, by the flamepit of the Grand Hall. His graying hair was tied back in a warrior's knot, his cloak stitched with the sigil of the old Arm Hearts. He looked up as Zaine approached.
"You heard?" Alfred asked, his voice low.
Zaine gave a slow nod.
Alfred's expression tightened. "The boy's gone mad. Fred is dead. Half the floor's either defected or afraid to speak."
Zaine didn't respond immediately. He turned toward the training fields beyond the inner wall. Disciples still practiced, still believed.
"Prepare the elders," he said. "Call the scouts. And tell the mages… we descend in three days."
Alfred's voice darkened. "You mean to face him?"
"No," Zaine said, not looking back.
"I mean to end him."
////////////////////////////////////////
The skies over the Second Floor burned orange as the sun struggled to rise through thick plumes of smoke. On the cliffs above the Church of Dawn's main compound, Zaine stood like a statue carved from resolve.
The former martial guild headquarters had been converted into a sanctuary of warped peace—white silk banners fluttered from the ruined walls, golden incense burned in braziers shaped like suns, and chanting echoed from courtyards where monks in battle robes knelt in eerie synchronicity.
Zaine scanned the enemy formation. Hundreds of acolytes moved in patterns—trained, armed, disciplined. Danjuro's work. No longer a misguided boy.
But a fanatic.
His voice crackled in Zaine's earpiece.
"Positions set?"
A scout whispered back. "Every corridor is mapped. The inner sanctum is lightly guarded. They don't expect a frontal strike."
"They will now," Zaine muttered.
He raised his hand.
And pointed.
Qi detonated across the ridge as the Arm Hearts leapt into action. Dozens of martial elites surged down the slope with thunder in their wake. The rocks cracked under their footfalls. War cries tore through the air.
Below, the Church acolytes faltered—but only for a moment.
Then the hymns turned to commands.
"Shield the flame! Hold the light! For the Lightbringer!"
Golden barriers erupted across the encampment. Archers in white robes loosed arrows wreathed in sacred light. Explosions lit the battlefield like lightning strikes. Disciples clashed blade to blade, technique to technique.
Zaine landed in the heart of the storm.
[SKILL ACTIVATED – Black Sea Palm]
His palm strike carved a trench through a column of defenders. Five were thrown into the air—broken mid-flight. Another charged at him with a glaive of gold-light. Zaine sidestepped and drove his elbow into the man's throat. He didn't stop moving.
"Push forward! Take their sanctum!" he ordered, voice like thunder.
Behind him, Alfred led the second wave of martial artists, his blade dancing through the enemy ranks with merciless precision.
The battlefield became a symphony of screams, flashing steel, and the roar of broken faith.
[THIRTY MINUTES INTO THE ASSAULT]
Smoke rolled through the inner corridors of the compound. Fallen acolytes lined the stone floors. Holy banners burned in pyres of golden silk. The great bell of the Church of Dawn lay split in two.
Zaine wiped blood from his brow. His uniform was shredded. His fists bled. His breath came heavy, but measured.
They had broken through.
The sanctuary was theirs.
"Secure the relic chamber," he ordered. "Sweep the remaining cells."
Alfred joined him at the top of the marble stairs.
"It's done," his father said, giving a rare, grim smile. "The Lightborn are routed. Danjuro's not here."
Zaine nodded slowly, scanning the battlefield with cautious pride.
"He ran," he muttered. "Coward. Hid behind illusions again."
He looked down at his trembling hand. Why did it still feel… incomplete?
"Prepare to pull out," he said. "Let them carry their wounded. We've made our point."
But then—
A sound. A choked gasp.
Zaine turned.
Alfred stood there. Still upright.
But blood bloomed from his chest. A blade protruded through his ribs.
Behind him stood Danjuro.
His robes were scorched. His hair wild. His eyes gleamed with fanatical calm.
"Did you think peace would come so cheaply?" he whispered.
Zaine's world went still.
"No—" he lunged.
[SKILL ACTIVATED – Shifting Veil (Zen's Gift)][User has become Undetectable for 6 seconds]
Danjuro vanished—fading into thin air as if light bent around him.
Zaine caught Alfred as he fell.
"...Zaine…" the old man rasped, blood seeping from his lips. "He's… gone too far…"
His body went limp.
Zaine held him longer than he realized.
Around him, the battlefield grew quiet. Even the wind seemed to pause.
His hands clenched.
His breath shook.
Then the fury came.
Blue and red qi surged from his skin in molten rivers of energy. The earth cracked beneath him. His scream split the sky.
[MOMENTS LATER – THE RUINS OF DAWN]
Zaine stood over the smoldering remains of the Church of Dawn's inner sanctum, his fists trembling, his aura flickering like unstable lightning.
His father's blood still clung to his clothes.
His breath was fire.
His mind, a furnace of grief and rage.
Then—
[SYSTEM ALERT – CONSTELLATION TRANSMISSION RECEIVED]Origin: Kome, God of WarMessage: PRIVATE / EMOTIONAL PRIORITY RANK – WRATH
"Zaine, my champion. The Tower demands fire. Your enemy has struck your blood. There is only one answer: war.
Tear down their homes. Burn their faith. Break their gods.
Let chaos bloom and paint the skies in vengeance.
Let me make you unbreakable."
The words echoed in Zaine's mind like drums of conquest. He could feel Kome's fury ignite his blood. It would be so easy…
So easy to let go.
To declare an all-out holy war against Danjuro and his cursed flock.
But—
A pulse.
A breath.
A quiet current beneath the storm.
Xian's voice echoed in memory.
"True strength is not how loudly your soul roars… but how clearly it listens."
Zaine's aura dimmed. His heartbeat slowed.
The technique he had mastered on the mountain, forged from years of cultivation and inner tempering, surged within him like cool water.
The rage curled back.
And in that stillness…He saw the battlefield.
The dead. The broken. The path ahead.
And he understood something deeper about the realm he walked.
Not all demons were outside.
Some were born within.
And this time… he had beaten his.
[SYSTEM NOTICE – INNER CALM ACQUIRED]You have resisted a divine call to wrath. Your soul has grown stronger.[Technique: Heaven-Balanced Meridian Flow – STABLE]Qi Circulation Efficiency: +15%Mental Interference Resistance: +50%Divine Influence: Temporarily Suppressed
Zaine opened his eyes, steady.
The war would come.
But it would be on his terms.
Not Kome's.Not Zen's.
His.