A few years after the duels:
********
"I guess it's time to go back to Earth…" Zane muttered to himself.
"But how?"
"The Whisperkin brought me here," he whispered, dragging himself to a sitting position after one of his training session with Onilia. "So… do I call its name or something? Maybe Instructor Marius will know. I'll just ask him tomorrow."
Groaning, he staggered to his feet and headed toward the bathing room.
There was a time when even opening a door here had been a challenge. In his earlier days on Zoic, the door wouldn't budge no matter how hard he pushed.
Not anymore.
This time, he slammed the door open with enough force to make it swing against the wall. A small victory, but it felt damn good.
Inside, the air was cool, and runes embedded into the walls glowed with a soft golden light, illuminating the bath chamber with a calming warmth. Stone pipes released fresh, crystal-clear water into a deep basin, creating a soft rushing sound that echoed through the room like a river in a cave.
'I wonder how many baths this makes.'
Zane took it upon himself to try out all the baths in the house. Being the first to arrive at the summit, Onilia claimed the best mansion, and Zane had been enjoying every part of it despite arriving last.
Zane peeled off his sweat-soaked clothes and stepped into the water. It hit his skin like a blessing—cool, clean, and rejuvenating.
The water flowed over him like a sacred stream, washing away the dirt, the blood, and perhaps a few sins he'd committed. He stayed under the stream for a while, letting it soothe his aching muscles and heavy thoughts.
The mirror above the stone sink shimmered faintly under the runes' glow.
He looked up and stared at his reflection.
His hair had turned white. Not just a streak—but fully white. It wasn't from age or dye, but from the unbearable stress and pressure of the training. Even though he regenerated every time he died or got injured, the toll was still there. Your body is bound to undergo some changes when your skull gets crushed multiple times, or when your face is smashed into the ground to death countless times, or when a blade is plunged straight into your heart a hundred times.
His body bore the proof.
Scars traced across his chest, a few on his face, arms, and back—faint but visible. His once-skinny frame had transformed. He wasn't bulky, but his muscles were defined now. His abs were visible—firm packs carved by sheer pain and persistence. His shoulders were broader, his eyes deeper, or at least that's how he saw it to be.
"I wonder if Ariel would even recognize me now…" he whispered.
He dried off, pulled on some comfortable pants, and stepped out of the bath chamber.
The bedroom was cozy, with more runes glowing faintly in the corners, casting a golden hue over the room.
He dropped onto the bed without a second thought, his limbs falling limp.
He thought of Onilia.
He thought of how strong she was. Not just physically—mentally too. She never showed weakness—not even once.
He remembered how, when Instructor Marius first arrived, he had doubted her. He had tested her loyalty, thinking she had some hidden motive for helping him.
He had accused her of wanting something in return.
And yet… she never asked for anything.
She trained him, stood by him, pushed him to survive—all without expecting anything in return.
"She's clearly going through a lot…" he thought. "Her planet is under threat. She has people to protect, a family… yet she never complains."
Most of the time, Zane couldn't even guess what she was thinking. She kept everything locked inside. She wasn't one to joke, laugh, or even hold long conversations. With the exception of Zane, she barely spoke to anyone unless absolutely necessary.
His thought took a detour to his time at the Walker's mansion. Unpleasant memories began to surface. A time before he was chased out, a time before he even consodered Ariel his sister.
He remembered how the servants were treated better than him, how his father despised him, but he didn't care what they thought of him. One time, he deeply immersed in a novel when he heard a knock on his door.
"It's best you don't come in, whoever you are." He responded, not looking up from the book in his palm.
After a short while, the door creaked open. A little girl who was supposedly his youngest sibling, and the only girl in the family walked in afterwards.
"I thought I told you to buzz off. Get out now." He said, annoyance sharpening his tone.
The little girl looked flinched for a moment, but Zane didn't care what his reaction caused the poor girl. Sighing deeply, he asked.
"Fine, what do you want Ariel, make it quick, I don't have time."
The girl's face lit up.
"I want big bwother to pway with Awiel." She said in a soft tone, barely pronouncing her words as she clung to the door frame.
Zane, a single chapter away from completing the novel he was reading looked at her in disbelief.
"What, you disturbed me because you wanted to play? Get out this instant, and close the door on your way out." He yelled at the little girl who kept standing there.
Zane's patience was draining, and fast.
Ariel didn't move, ignoring Zane, she walked in, scanning the room.
"Wow, big bwother's room is small." It was; he'd chosen it himself.
Her gaze then shifted to his computer.
"What are those weird lines on the scween? A new game?" She asked
"Don't touch that you little... " On the screen, his Bitcoin trading algorithm was loading. The trend was bullish, the timer set to one-second intervals. With four key presses, Ariel had triggered a "sell" order. The amount was set to the maximum limit. This was the fund he'd painstakingly built for his future plans.
He rushed to correct the catastrophic error, but Ariel planted herself between him and his life savings, her small arms spread wide.
"You don't want to pway with Awiel because you want to pway game on the computer?" Ariel said with a frown.
"Look here, you little demon," Zane said, the strain of forced patience cracking his voice as the seconds ticked away. "The system will keep repeating that sell until there's nothing left! Now move, unless you want to die, I mean cry."
"Big bwother is so mean!" In a fit of pique, she shoved the monitor. Entangled cables ripped the entire setup from the desk, crashing it to the floor hard. She had no idea she had just obliterated three hundred million dollars.
It would take more than a few minutes to either buy another computer or use someone else's to log into that site and correct the mistake Ariel had just made. By then, who knows how much would be left.
Zane knelt, his mind going blank. The site would keep mining, the automated disaster unfolding without his intervention. He remembered the struggle to gather the initial thirty thousand from the scraps Blake gave him. All of it, gone. Because of...
"Why are you kneeling? You can always get a new computer," Ariel chirped, blissfully unaware.
"You foolish, needlessly nosy, ignorant, little brat! I told you to get out! Now look what you've done!" A torrent of curses erupted from him, each word harsher than the last.
Ariel, who had never been spoken to that way, burst into tears. The commotion swiftly drew Blake and the others to the scene.
Zane smiled at the memory, his thoughts blurred together as the fatigue took over. His muscles finally relaxed, and his mind drifted into silence.
He didn't even know when he fell asleep.
**
"Big brother… please save me. I'm scared."
Ariel's voice trembled, soft and desperate, as the Whisperkin's long, jagged claw traced slowly along her throat.
She was tied tightly to a thick, gnarled tree, her arms stretched above her, wrists bound by coarse vines that bit into her skin. The forest around them was eerily silent, as if they were the only living things present.
The Whisperkin hovered beside her, its hunched form cloaked in shifting shadows. Its claw pressed deeper this time—just enough to break the skin. A thin red line formed, and a single droplet of blood slid down her neck like a tear. She squeezed her eyes shut, her lips trembling in fear.
Zane screamed in rage and panic, but when he tried to run to her, his feet wouldn't move.
His body pushed forward with all its might, but an invisible force held him back. No matter how much he struggled, he couldn't get any closer. The distance between them stretched like a cruel illusion. Finally breaking free with sheer willpower, he ran towards her. But the harder he ran, the farther away she became.
"Big brother, please don't leave me…" Ariel cried again, her voice full of pain.
"Whisperkin, you bastard!" Zane roared. "You said you would wait!"
A voice echoed in his mind, cold and amused.
"What can I say?" The Whisperkin's voice slithered into his mind, dripping with mockery. "You were late, and I could wait no longer. You only have yourself to blame for taking your sweet time."
Zane's heart raced as the world twisted around him. The sky darkened. Ariel's screams echoed louder—
And then—he jolted upright.
His chest heaved. Sweat soaked his clothes. His breath came in short, sharp gasps. The nightmare still clung to his skin like frost.
The room was bathed in warm morning light, soft rays spilling through the window. The air was quiet, broken only by the chirping of distant sky-birds and the faint rustle of wind.
"Are you alright?" a voice asked gently.
Zane turned toward the sound—and froze.
Onilia stood near the doorway, her sapphire eyes locked onto his. This time, she didn't try to kill him in his sleep, actually, she had stopped doing that for quite some time. She wore a simple sleeveless dress that hugged her form, every line moving with a dancer's grace.
Zane swallowed and wiped his face, suddenly aware of the warm trails running down his cheeks.
"Yeah…" he murmured, his voice still shaky. "Is it already time for Instructor Marius's training?"
Onilia didn't answer right away. Her gaze lingered on him a moment longer, her expression unreadable.
"We should eat first," she finally said, voice soft but distant. Without another word, she turned and walked away, her long hair, taking on the color of silver and black, trailed behind her like silk.
Zane stared after her, then reached up and touched his face again.
"Tears?"
He had been crying—and he hadn't even noticed. A lump formed in his throat, and he clenched his jaw.
I don't want to think about that dream. Not now at least.
He rose from the bed, his body still sore from yesterday's training, and splashed some water on his face from the nearby basin.
'The Whisperkin was right, It's time I went back.'
Downstairs, Onilia moved with slow but steady grace, her boots barely making a sound on the polished steps.
And for the first time in a long while—she was truly worried.
She had seen Zane bleed. She had seen him broken, stabbed, crushed, and even die over and over again.
But not once—had she seen him shed a tear.
Until today.
"What could make him cry like that? He looked so vulnerable." she wondered, her brows slightly furrowed. "Was it about that girl… Ariel?"
The name lingered in her mind like a whisper.
"If it is… then he must really love her."
The thought made her chest tighten in a strange, unfamiliar way. She didn't fully understand it—but she didn't like it either.
She reached the kitchen and started setting the plates, but her mind remained elsewhere, tangled in the image of Zane's tear-streaked face.
**
Zane made his way downstairs, his steps slow.
One thing was certain—he had to return to Earth immediately.
His thoughts were a tangled mess. Each step felt final, as if walking toward an ending he wasn't ready for. The scent of something like roasted bread and herbs hung faintly in the air, a comforting smell that clashed with the heaviness in his heart.
He reached the table and pulled the chair back with a dull scrape. The seat felt colder than usual as he sank into it. A plate of warm food sat in front of him—bread, dried meats, and sliced fruit, or that's what he liked to call the strange food—but his appetite was nowhere to be found. He picked up a piece of bread, broke it apart slowly, and then just let the crumbs fall back to the plate.
Across from him, Onilia sat in silence. She watched him quietly, her sapphire eyes soft yet distant. She noticed how he played with his food rather than eat it, his fingers fidgeting, his mind clearly elsewhere.
But she didn't say anything.
The silence between them was thick, almost suffocating, like the calm before a storm neither of them wanted to face.
Finally, Zane broke it.
"I'm going back to my home planet."
His voice was calm, but it carried a quiet weight, like a truth he'd been holding back for too long.
Onilia froze.
Something inside her shifted, like a thin thread being cut. She had known deep down that this moment would come—they couldn't just stay together forever. He didn't belong there, and neither did she.
But still… it felt too soon.
Living with Zane had become a strange comfort. Amid all the burdens of her duty, her training, and the Interplanetary Awakened Tournament (IAT) hanging over her head. Training him, dealing with his silly pranks had made things easier to bear, if not a little. It's like getting acquainted with someone and becoming fond of them only to realise it was a short term thing.
But now…
"When are you going back?" she asked, her voice low and distant. Her gaze remained fixed on her plate, unwilling to meet his eyes.
Zane stared at her for a moment, noticing the way her shoulders tensed ever so slightly.
"As soon as possible," he replied softly.
And then… silence again.
Zane expected her to say something, but neither of them said another word for a long while. The only sound was the occasional clink of cutlery and the quiet hum of the wind outside brushing against the windowpanes.
The rest of their breakfast time had become a quiet battlefield of unspoken emotions.
When the meal was finally over, Onilia stood up slowly and brushed a few crumbs from her lap. She turned away, her face unreadable.
"You know Instructor Marius won't let you go until the training is completed, right?" Onilia asked.
"Yes." Zane replied shortly.
"And you plan on forcing him to make an exception?" Onilia asked again.
"Yes." Zane replied.
"How?"
"This time, I'm getting The Master involved." Zane replied looking at Onilia but she looked away.
"We should get going," she said, her voice steady but lacking its usual sharpness.
Zane gave a small nod and pushed back his chair.
'I guess it's time for Instructor Marius's hellish session' he thought.