Barron stopped Allen outside the training hall. For once, he wasn't smirking.
"You're not coming with me today," he said.
Allen blinked. "Then who?"
Before he could finish, a breeze swept past him. A sudden blur of motion landed beside them.
It was Ikki.
He was calm, but there was something different about him. Serious. Focused. Almost cold.
"Come," Ikki said softly.
Allen hesitated. "Wait "
Ikki grabbed his hand.
And in the blink of an eye, they were gone.
The wind howled past Allen's ears. His feet dangled in open air. His vision blurred, and his stomach twisted as they flew through clouds like falling stars.
Then silence.
They stood on the edge of a cliff.
Or... not a cliff.
An abyss.
An endless void stretched out below them black, bottomless, and unmoving. The sky above was cracked with shimmering light like broken glass. It felt like they were standing on the edge of existence itself.
Allen was breathless. "W-Where... are we?"
Ikki looked ahead, not at him.
"This is the end of the world," he said.
Allen blinked. "What are you talking about?"
Ikki turned to him at last. "This world Xarion is just one of many. One of twelve."
Allen frowned. "Twelve...?"
Ikki nodded. "One massive original world at the center. Surrounding it are eleven major sub-worlds. And beyond each of those... countless lesser ones."
Allen's mouth went dry. "That's... impossible."
"No," Ikki said quietly. "It's real. And the reason you've never read about it is because you were never meant to know. Xarion this world is one of the eleven sub-worlds. I rule this one."
Allen staggered. "You rule... this entire world?"
Ikki gave him a faint smile. "Yes. And every one of the eleven worlds has its own form, laws, and creatures some of which you can't even imagine."
He turned his eyes to the abyss.
"Now that you've awakened SERRA, your body may live longer than normal. Thousands of years. Millions. Maybe even more. Or…" He paused. "You may not last past tomorrow."
Allen's eyes widened.
Ikki chuckled softly. "Don't worry. As long as you hold the Iron Chain, death is not your biggest problem."
His warmth returned for a moment a brotherly smile.
"You're going to encounter things out there, Allen. Giants. Barbarians. Creatures older than time. You're not ready yet... but someday, you might be."
Allen stood frozen, his mind reeling. Even reading Ikki's thoughts gave him no answers.
"Why are you telling me this now?" he asked.
Ikki's smile faded.
His gaze dropped, sorrow in his voice. "Because a war is coming. One we haven't faced in a long time."
Allen's heart skipped. "War…?"
Ikki nodded. "I have a meeting with the other eleven kings. Together, we twelve govern the balance of everything. But now, something has changed. And I don't have time to explain it all."
He placed his hand on Allen's shoulder. "I brought you here for one reason."
Allen looked up.
"Your birthday," Ikki said. "I wanted to give you your gift."
Allen stepped back. "I don't care about a present! What if something happens to you?!"
Ikki smiled at him that warm, familiar smile.
Then, without warning, he struck Allen hard in the gut.
Allen gasped.
The world spun.
And everything went black.
Back to the Hall of Stone
Allen woke up coughing, gasping for breath.
He lay on the cold training ground, Barron towering over him.
"Get your ass up," Barron snapped.
Allen staggered to his feet, panic still on his face. "I have to find Ikki! Something's wrong!"
Barron's fist slammed into the ground beside him, cracking the stone.
"You think you can help him?" he growled. "You're still too weak to handle your own power. If I unleashed even one percent of my SERRA, it'd tear you in half."
Allen froze.
Barron straightened and crossed his arms.
"You forget who we're talking about. Ikki. The Red-Eyed Hero. The King of Heroes. The one who faced the Shattered Flame and lived."
Allen's fists clenched.
"He's not going into battle," Barron added. "It's a meeting. So sit down, shut up, and stop acting like a lost child."
Then he reached into the shadows and tossed something at Allen's feet.
An old, dirty spear.
Its shaft was scarred. The head dull. But it pulsed with something ancient like a beast asleep inside it.
"That's your birthday present," Barron said. "You'd have gotten it sooner if you hadn't acted like a spoiled brat when you turned twenty-one."
Allen bent down, picked it up slowly.
Even holding it made his arm tremble.
He looked down at the worn weapon, shame and determination in his chest like fire.
Then he looked Barron dead in the eye.
"…Let's not waste any more time."
Barron raised an eyebrow. A grin crept onto his face.
"Good," he said. "Now we train."
The training grounds were vast and cold, walled in black stone and scorched earth. No sky above just thick clouds pulsing with faint lightning, like the world itself was holding its breath.
Barron stood in the center, arms crossed, watching Allen approach with the old spear still clutched in hand.
"First lesson," Barron said. "Enhancement."
Allen narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"
Barron pointed at his chest.
"You awakened SERRA. But don't get excited it's barely a flicker. And the more SERRA you hold, the more your body needs to endure it. Think of it like fire. The bigger the flame, the thicker the container."
He gestured to Allen's legs.
"Right now, your container's made of wet paper."
Allen scowled.
"Which is why," Barron continued, stepping forward, "you start with physical training. Basic. Brutal. Constant."
Then he snapped his fingers.
The hell began.
Pushups on burning stone. Sprinting with chains wrapped around his arms. Carrying stones the size of corpses while Barron hurled blasts of SERRA at his feet to force him to dodge mid-step. Lifting boulders until his bones trembled. Holding a plank on one hand while his body convulsed from overuse.
Time blurred. His breath burned. His muscles screamed. His veins felt like they were splitting open. The spear dug into his back like punishment for slowing down.
Allen collapsed more than once.
Barron didn't stop him.
Didn't scream.
Didn't push harder.
He just… watched. Unimpressed.
And finally, after hours of grinding pain, Barron called it.
"That's enough."
Allen dropped to the ground, gasping, drenched in sweat and blood and shame. His hands shook. His knees gave out.
He looked up at Barron.
The man didn't even look disappointed. Just… tired.
"You're not useless," he muttered. "But your body didn't develop much. Figures. With the tiny speck of SERRA you carry, I'd be shocked if it had."
Allen grit his teeth. "Then how am I supposed to get more?"
Barron glanced over, then sighed.
"There are two ways," he said. "One's easy. The other's hell."
Allen sat up slowly, wiping his face. "Start with the easy one."
"Emotion," Barron said. "Rage, grief, joy anything strong enough can spike your SERRA temporarily. Ever noticed how you feel stronger when you're furious?"
Allen nodded.
"But that's unstable. Fluctuating. Borrowed power. And borrowed power can't be trusted."
Allen lowered his gaze. "Then what's the other way?"
Barron's eyes turned sharp. Focused.
"Soul training."
Allen blinked. "What does that mean?"
Barron stepped closer.
"You take your consciousness and you dive inward. You give up all your senses sight, smell, hearing, taste, touch. You leave your body behind and enter your soul. In that state, time freezes. Your soul takes shape, becomes your body."
Allen stared at him, stunned.
"Every drop of sweat your soul sheds… every step it takes in that frozen world… will grow your SERRA. Permanently."
Allen's breath caught. "That sounds…"
"Dangerous?" Barron smirked. "It is."
He crouched in front of Allen.
"If you focus too hard, your soul might fracture. Go too deep, and you might never come back. You'll be a living shell, mind lost in your own abyss."
Allen swallowed.
Barron continued, his voice lower.
"But the more pressure, the more danger… the greater the reward. If you survive, you'll come out stronger. With more SERRA than most ever achieve in a lifetime."
He stood back up.
"But not yet. First, you master what you have. If you can't enhance your limbs with the SERRA you do have… there's no point diving deeper."
Allen nodded slowly, feeling the weight of every word.
"How long does it take to master that soul training?" he asked.
"A month," Barron said. "If you're lucky. And every time you do it, you make damn sure your physical body can handle what your soul brings back."
He walked away, stopping just before the gates.
"Or else…" Barron looked back over his shoulder. "Your body will explode from the inside out."
The sky over Xarion darkened as the training fields emptied.
Barron ordered Allen to rest, and for a while, he did. He lay in a cold stone room, wrapped in a threadbare cloak, staring at the ceiling.
But no sleep came.
Not because he resisted it but because he simply couldn't. His body was tired, but something inside him kept pulsing. Buzzing. Alive.
Barron's words echoed in his mind.
"Leave your body. Abandon all senses. Walk the soul."
He sat up, restless. Alone.
A part of him just wanted to understand it just to see what it felt like. One try wouldn't hurt, right?
So he rose, returned to the empty training floor, sat in the middle, and crossed his legs.
He closed his eyes.
Breathed in.
Reached inward.
And opened something.
At first, it was calm. Curious.
Then... everything spiraled out of control.
His senses didn't vanish they amplified. Everything Barron warned him not to do was happening.
He felt the dust under his feet, every single grain. Heard whispers from rooms far away, screams of metal from deep underground. His skin crawled with a thousand sensations. The beat of his heart felt like a hammer in his skull.
And then came the pain.
SERRA flowed through him raw, burning, wild.
It didn't embrace him.
It torched him.
His arms felt like molten iron. His back arched. His legs twisted. His muscles convulsed. He tried to pull back but couldn't.
He was locked inside.
Drowning.
And just when his strength gave out…
He saw it.
Ikki.
Smiling. Reaching for him.
The memory burned brighter than the SERRA inside him.
No, Allen told himself. Not yet.
With a guttural roar, Allen did the unthinkable.
He didn't reject the SERRA.
He forced it deeper inside.
His veins bulged. His eardrums ruptured. His eyes turned blood-red. Blood poured from his nose like a river. His skin cracked from the inside as his body boiled.
One more push.
One more step.
And then silence.
He opened his eyes.
But he had no body.
He stood in a void.
Weightless.
Flickering.
His hands… were made of blue flame.
His body… was a glowing silhouette of himself.
He had entered the soul state.
One step forward in this place sent agony rushing through him. Pure flame in his chest. Pain that couldn't be described.
But still… he walked.
And then it was over.
Allen's body burst into radiant blue light, coating the entire field in a blinding wave of SERRA.
The sky trembled.
Miles away, Barron jolted upright.
Impossible.
In a blink, Barron teleported to the center of the training field just in time to see Allen standing in a blaze of blue.
And then BOOM.
Allen's body exploded.
Blood. Flame. Silence.
Barron stood over the corpse, jaw clenched. His eyes burned with fury, then… regret.
He knelt.
But before he could even mutter a curse—
Allen gasped.
He came back to life.
His body whole.
No blood. No wounds.
Only the Iron Chain wrapped tightly around his heart glowing faintly.
Barron didn't hesitate. He slapped Allen hard across the face.
"IDIOT!" he shouted. "What did I tell you?!"
Allen groaned, half-awake. "I… I just wanted to try…"
"Try?!" Barron's eyes blazed. "TRY?! You nearly tore your soul in half! You almost died, you reckless little! If not for the Iron Chain, you'd be a sack of ash right now!"
Allen coughed.
Then Barron stopped.
His expression changed.
He stepped back slowly, his eyes scanning Allen's aura.
"…Unreal," he muttered.
Allen looked up, dazed.
"What?"
Barron stared at him now less angry, more shaken.
"You just came back with more SERRA than some warriors gain in a year of soul training."
Allen blinked. "It was only… one step."
Barron froze.
His mouth moved but no words came out.
Then, finally: "Stop lying."
"I'm not," Allen said weakly. "I only walked once. One step."
Barron didn't believe him. He couldn't. But there was no way Allen knew how to lie about this. He barely even understood the training.
Barron backed away, his voice barely a whisper.
"…Ikki… Who the hell is your brother?"
He stared into the blue glow radiating from Allen's soul.
"…I hope… I hope he never turns on us."
His voice dropped even lower. Almost like a prophecy.
"Because if he does… he might be the only one alive who could kill the Iron Monarch."