The skies cracked under the weight of power.
Ash fell like snow. Mana choked the atmosphere. The once-proud skyline of Solara—the Sun-Forged City—was now a half-collapsed ruin beneath a burning sky.
And still, Solace stood unshaken.
His sword shimmered with spatial fractures. Echo, his newly awakened bloodline ability, hovered beside him—a translucent afterimage moving half a breath behind him, replicating every motion with flawless precision.
Before him, the King and Queen of Solara were bloodied, their divine armor cracked, their once-pristine elegance dulled beneath ash and blood.
They panted. Spells flickered in and out of form. Their mana reserves were plummeting. And now—they were afraid.
Solace stepped forward, slow, deliberate.
"Where is Seraphina?"
The Queen's eyes flashed, but the pain in her chest held her tongue.
The King gritted his teeth.
"You don't understand what she was—"
"I understand enough."
Solace raised his hand. The space around him twisted again. Echo mirrored him.
"You gave her to the Dragons. Didn't you?"
Neither confirmed it.
They didn't need to.
His silence turned deadly.
"Fine," Solace said coldly. "Then you'll both live long enough to watch."
He turned toward the city.
With his Echo beside him, he extended his hand. The very mana fabric of Solara began to unravel.
He willed it.
|Eclipse Spiral|
A vortex formed high above the kingdom—a swirling storm of space and fire, bending light and time. It grew rapidly, eating heat and mana, pulling loose stones and rooftops into its growing center.
Buildings imploded.
Towers crumbled.
Screams rose from every district as mana formations collapsed, defense arrays short-circuited by the warped leylines.
And still, Solace hovered there—like a god of ruin.
The King shouted, "Stop this! There are innocent people below!"
Solace glanced back at him, eyes like glowing coals.
"And I was innocent when you sent me to die."
The Queen fell to her knees, coughing blood.
"Seraphina… she's not dead."
Those words halted the storm—just briefly.
Solace's eyes narrowed.
"Where?"
The King gasped, holding his side. "We… sent her to a Secret Realm… she's training… with the ancestor of this Kingdom. She chose to train rather than renounce your marriage."
Silence fell.
Gaia, still watching above, finally lowered herself closer, her expression unreadable.
Solace breathed slowly, fists clenched.
"So, she's alive…"
Not for one second did he believe she chose to train rather than annul their marriage.
He lowered his blade—but didn't sheath it.
The Eclipse Spiral still churned above, a silent threat.
"Then this kingdom dies… for all the ones who didn't get a choice."
His Echo raised its blade with him.
And together—they brought it down.
The vortex screamed as it collapsed inward—imploding with cataclysmic force. Light vanished. Sound was swallowed. Mana itself was drained into a singularity of flame and warped space.
When it ended, only silence remained.
Half of Solara was gone. The rest burned under collapsing wards and falling debris.
Solace hovered above the ruins, eyes glowing.
To the King and Queen, he spoke once more.
"Go tell the world. That's the only reason you will live..."
He vanished into the blackened sky—Echo trailing silently behind him.
And Gaia, the Earth's witness, whispered beneath her breath.
"Interesting..." she then followed after him.
----
Ash still lingered in the upper winds, carried far from the ruins of Solara by the whispering mana streams. Yet Solace flew onward, his black cloak trailing like a shadow behind him, his presence now still, even calm.
Beside him, Gaia drifted in silence. The world's will made flesh, she had witnessed the massacre without judgment—and now she watched the man behind it as he flew with no destination.
The silence between them felt natural.
Until she broke it.
"What do you have planned next?"
Solace tilted his head slightly, thinking.
Then.
"Hmm... I think it's time I make a name for myself in this world."
Gaia's expression didn't change, but she listened intently.
"There's still much to be seen. Much to be learned. And well... since you're literally this world, you probably already know I was an assassin before all this."
He glanced her way, smirking beneath the mask.
"I could keep going down that road—slipping through shadows, collecting secrets, striking from the dark. It's easy. Efficient. But also... boring. Predictable."
Gaia's brow rose faintly.
"So, you'll stop being an assassin?"
Solace chuckled.
"Negative. As you can see, I wear a mask—and no one living has ever seen my face."
He tapped the edge of his mask.
"I'll just… do what any clever killer does. I'll put on a new face. In public, I'll be someone else entirely."
He paused, then added with a glint in his eye:
"I'm thinking… blacksmith and formation master. The kind who works with major sects. Builds tools. Crafts defensive wards. Makes friends. Learns everything."
Gaia blinked, then nodded slowly.
"Hmmm… I didn't expect that."
Solace smiled behind his mask.
"That's the point. Let the world chase ghosts while I shake hands and draw maps. I'll watch from the center of their trust."
He looked ahead, watching the land stretch beneath them like an open book.
"I'll keep that up… until I hear something interesting. And then?"
He said nothing more.
But Gaia understood.
He wouldn't just watch. He would change it.