Year 900. Five years had passed since the Great Awakening shattered the world like glass. The history books called it humanity's ascension—the day ordinary people discovered they could command the elements themselves. What the books didn't mention was the screaming.
Kai Nakamura remembered the screaming.
He remembered his mother's voice cutting through the chaos as their neighbor, sweet old Mrs. Chen who used to bake them cookies, turned their street into a river of molten stone. He remembered his father's last words before the earth swallowed him whole: "Run, Kai. Don't look back."
He'd been running ever since.
Now, perched on Mario's Wall with the wind tugging at his black hair, Kai wondered if Mrs. Chen was still alive somewhere in the Obsidian District, still baking cookies between massacres. The irony wasn't lost on him—the very wall that protected the last free city was named after the man whose engineering had failed to save anyone who mattered.
The power system was beautifully simple in its cruelty: kill an elemental, absorb a portion of their strength. Kill a pure-blood—someone like Kai's parents—and double that gain. It had taken exactly three months for the elemental wars to begin, and another two for the world to end.
Four districts now carved up the corpse of civilization. Azure's water-benders had claimed the eastern shores, turning coastal cities into their personal drowning pools. Crimson's fire-wielders ruled the southern wastelands from palaces of volcanic glass. Glacial's air-masters commanded the northern storms, while Obsidian's earth-shapers had buried the western cities beneath mountains of stone.
And here, in the center of it all, Mario's Wall held the last thousand pure-bloods like sheep in a pen, waiting for slaughter.
Kai exhaled smoke into the cold night air, his breath misting in the moonlight. The irony was that he wasn't entirely pure-blood anymore—hadn't been since the night he'd first made steel flow like water to escape a fire-wielder's trap. The ability had manifested late, subtle, nothing like the explosive awakening most elementals experienced. Which meant he could pass for normal, could walk among the pure-bloods as their protector while planning their salvation.
Or their revenge. Some days he wasn't sure which.
Movement in the streets below caught his attention. A figure in a dark cloak moved with purpose through the narrow alleys, carrying a lantern that cast shifting shadows on the wooden buildings. There was something wrong about the way they walked—too graceful, too aware of their surroundings.
Kai stepped off the wall.
His steel arm guards dissolved, flowing together beneath his feet to create a platform that lowered him silently to street level. The metal responded to his will like an extension of his nervous system, reshaping itself back into guards as his boots touched cobblestone.
He followed the figure through three turns, staying in the shadows, until curiosity overcame caution.
"Beautiful night for a walk," he called out, stepping into the light.
The figure spun, and Kai found himself staring into eyes like winter sky—pale blue and absolutely lethal. Ice shards materialized in the air around her, spinning with deadly precision.
"Kai Nakamura," he said automatically, then mentally cursed himself. *Real smooth, genius.*
"You shouldn't have given me a name," she replied, her voice carrying the slight accent of the northern territories. "Names make this personal."
The ice shards flew.
Kai moved on pure instinct, his steel guards flowing up to deflect two projectiles while he twisted away from the third. The shard that grazed his cloak left a line of frost that crackled in the cold air.
"Water district," he observed, his metal beginning to ripple around his arms. "Long way from home."
The woman threw back her hood, revealing silver hair and features that would have been beautiful if not for the cold fury in her eyes. "Home isn't what it used to be."
Something in her tone made him hesitate. This wasn't the arrogant confidence of a district hunter—this was desperation wearing a mask of control.
"Then why are you here?" he asked, genuinely curious now.
For a moment, her ice faltered. Just for a moment, but long enough for him to see the exhaustion in her posture, the way her free hand pressed protectively against something hidden beneath her cloak.
"Because," she said quietly, "I have nowhere else to go."
That's when the real attack came—not ice shards, but water itself, rising from the gutters and drainage channels to wrap around his legs like liquid chains. She was fast, skilled, and absolutely terrified of something that wasn't him.
Kai could have broken free easily. His steel could slice through water, could armor him against ice, could end this fight in seconds. Instead, he let the water hold him.
"What's your name?" he asked.
She blinked, clearly not expecting the question. "Aria. Aria Volkov."
"Well, Aria Volkov, you're either the worst assassin in the four districts, or you're not an assassin at all."
The water loosened slightly. "What makes you say that?"
"Because if you wanted me dead, you wouldn't have warned me first. And because..." He gestured at the ice still spinning around them, "you're holding back."
Aria's laugh was bitter as winter wind. "Maybe I just enjoy playing with my food."
"Maybe. Or maybe you're scared of something bigger than both of us, and you're hoping I might be useful."
The ice stopped spinning. The water around his legs dissolved. And for the first time since she'd appeared, Aria Volkov looked like what she really was—a young woman far from home, carrying a secret that was slowly killing her.
"There are things you don't understand," she said finally.
"Then help me understand."
She reached beneath her cloak and withdrew something that made Kai's breath catch. A stone the size of his palm, pulsing with soft blue light that seemed to contain entire oceans. The power radiating from it made his steel sing with harmonic resonance.
"My name is Aria Volkov," she said again, but this time her voice carried a weight that made the very air seem heavier. "I was born in Azure District. I served the Water Lord Hydros faithfully for sixteen years. And three days ago, I stole this from him and watched my entire family die for it."
Kai stared at the stone, understanding flooding through him like ice water. "That's why you can control ice and water both. That's why you're here."
"The cores are awakening," Aria continued, her words coming faster now, as if speaking them aloud made them more real. "All five of them. The district lords have been gathering them in secret, planning something that will make the Great Awakening look like a gentle rain."
"Five cores?"
"Water, fire, earth, air..." She paused, meeting his eyes. "And one more. The prime core, made of steel so pure no elemental has ever been able to claim it."
Kai's metal guards rippled involuntarily. Steel. *Pure steel.*
"What happens when someone gathers all five?"
Aria's smile was sharp as broken glass. "According to the old texts? They become a god. And gods, Kai Nakamura, don't need to keep pure-bloods alive for their power. They can simply remake the world in their own image."
The implications hit him like a physical blow. The district lords weren't just fighting over territory anymore—they were racing toward apotheosis, and humanity was nothing more than fuel for their ascension.
"Why tell me this?" he asked.
"Because you're not what you seem either." Aria stepped closer, her pale eyes studying his face. "Your steel isn't normal earth-shaping. It's too fluid, too responsive. And because..." She hesitated, then forged ahead. "Because I think you might be able to claim the prime core."
"That's impossible."
"Is it? When's the last time you tested your limits, Kai? When's the last time you tried to do something that should have been impossible?"
He thought of Mrs. Chen, of his parents, of five years spent hiding what he really was. "What are you proposing?"
"Partnership. You help me stay alive long enough to stop the lords from gathering the cores. I help you find out what you really are." Aria tucked the water core back beneath her cloak. "And maybe, if we're very lucky and very clever, we save what's left of the world."
Kai looked at her—really looked. Saw the determination burning beneath the desperation, the intelligence behind the fear. Saw someone who, like him, had lost everything and was too stubborn to give up.
"Alright, Aria Volkov," he said finally. "You've got a deal. But we do this my way, on my terms."
"Which are?"
"We start by getting you somewhere safe. Then you tell me everything—about the cores, about the lords, about what really happened to your family." His steel began to flow, forming a platform beneath their feet. "And then we make them all pay for what they've done."
As they rose into the night sky, Mario's Wall falling away beneath them, neither of them noticed the figure watching from the shadows—a figure whose eyes glowed with the deep amber of molten gold, and whose smile promised that their little alliance had not gone unobserved.
The hunt was about to begin.
**To be continued...**