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Chapter 3: The Beacon of the Shard
The ruins erupted into chaos.
Lanterns flared across the cliffs, alarms echoed through the night, and the once-silent Shard roared to life. Cultivators poured in from the surrounding encampments like a flood, their spiritual energies cutting through the darkness in jagged streaks of light.
Kael didn't look back.
He sprinted through broken corridors and shattered archways, his breath ragged. His newly awakened senses were both a blessing and a curse—he could feel every presence converging on the ruins, like glowing embers in the night. Dozens of cultivators. Some strong. Too many to face.
The Nexus fragment inside him pulsed in time with his heartbeat, urging him forward. Every time he stumbled, a subtle surge steadied him, guiding his footing as if the world itself bent to keep him moving.
"They're closing in…" he muttered, eyes flicking to the distant lights zigzagging down the cliffs.
Two disciples in crimson robes leapt across a broken bridge ahead, landing in his path. Their lanterns painted harsh shadows across the stone.
"You!" one shouted. "Stop where you are!"
Kael's body moved before his mind caught up. He ducked low as a burst of spiritual force slammed into the wall behind him, shattering stone. Dust billowed. He bolted sideways into a narrow hallway, weaving through the wreckage with reckless speed.
"After him!"
Their footsteps thundered behind him. Kael's lungs burned, but he didn't slow down. The Nexus fragment thrummed hotter with each passing second, like it wanted to be used—but he didn't know how.
The hallway opened into a wide chamber split by a collapsed floor. Jagged edges dropped into darkness. Kael skidded to a halt, heart pounding. There was no way across… unless—
He took a deep breath and jumped.
The instant his feet left the ground, the Nexus pulse flared. A faint shimmer formed beneath him—an invisible push—sending him farther than his legs could've carried alone. He landed hard on the other side, stumbled, but stayed upright.
Behind him, the disciples cursed. One tried to jump and fell short, scrambling to grab the ledge. Kael didn't wait to see if they made it.
---
Meanwhile, above the ruins, the air grew heavy.
A single figure descended through the night like a falling star. Elder Rokan's crimson robes trailed behind him, spiritual energy rippling outward in waves. His landing cracked the stone beneath his feet.
"Report," he said.
Three disciples knelt before him. "Elder! The surge originated within the southern ruins. Multiple teams are in pursuit of an unidentified figure. We believe the source is moving."
Rokan's gaze swept across the ruins. His eyes narrowed. The Nexus beacon's light still pierced the sky like a pillar, humming with ancient resonance.
"This is no wild surge," he said quietly. "Someone bonded with it."
His spiritual pressure expanded, a suffocating blanket that silenced the entire area. Stones quivered. Weak cultivators flinched and averted their eyes.
"Seal every exit," Rokan ordered. "No one leaves this place. Find them."
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Kael darted through a maze of crumbling archways, but the hunters were relentless. He could feel their presence tightening around him. He turned a corner—and froze.
A single cultivator stood ahead, blocking the only way out.
He wasn't an elder, but his spiritual aura burned hot and focused. His uniform marked him as an inner disciple, stronger than the guards Kael had been dodging.
"You're fast," the man said coolly, hand resting on the hilt of his sword. "But you're not going anywhere."
Kael's heart slammed against his ribs. There was no other path. The Nexus pulse flared again, responding to his fear. Energy coiled in his limbs like compressed springs.
The man drew his blade, and spiritual energy flared around him. "Surrender now. If you resist, you'll regret it."
Kael didn't answer. His mind screamed for him to run—but there was nowhere to run.
The inner disciple lunged.
Kael moved on instinct. His hand shot up. The moment their energies collided, a shockwave burst outward. Dust and shards flew. Kael was thrown back into a wall, dazed—but the disciple staggered too, eyes wide.
"What… was that?" he hissed.
Kael didn't understand it either. He hadn't used a technique. The Nexus fragment had simply… reacted.
The disciple recovered quickly, aura flaring hotter. "So you're the one. The beacon reacted to you."
Kael's pulse spiked. The Nexus responded in kind. A faint halo of silver-blue light shimmered around him, barely visible through the dust.
The man's expression shifted—from suspicion to calculation, then greed.
Before he could attack again, the ground trembled. A massive surge of spiritual pressure rolled across the ruins—Elder Rokan's.
The disciple's confidence faltered. "The Elder is here…"
Kael seized the moment. He focused on that strange pull inside him, willing his legs to move—and the world blurred. Energy surged through his veins, propelling him past the stunned disciple like a gust of wind.
By the time the man turned, Kael was already gone.
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High above, Elder Rokan stood at the epicenter of the surge. He closed his eyes and extended his senses, tracing the residual energy like threads through a web.
It led… south. Moving fast.
"Interesting," he murmured. "It's not just leaking power. It's using it."
He opened his eyes, sharp as blades. "Hunt them down. Alive."
The ruins erupted into motion once more.
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Kael burst out of the southern ruins, lungs burning. Cool night air rushed against his face as he stumbled into the dense forest at the base of the Shard. Branches clawed at his clothes, roots threatened to trip him, but he didn't stop running until the lights and voices faded behind him.
When he finally collapsed beside a moss-covered boulder, the silence was almost deafening. His chest rose and fell in ragged breaths. His heart pounded. His whole body trembled—not just from exhaustion, but from the lingering hum of the Nexus fragment.
He pressed a hand to his chest. The faint silver-blue glow had faded, but the pulse remained, like a second heartbeat deep beneath his ribs.
"What… are you?" he whispered.
No answer came, but the fragment responded in its own way. His senses sharpened again, not with panic this time, but with a strange, rhythmic calm. He could feel the forest around him: the way the wind curled through the branches, the tiny fluctuations in energy as insects shifted in the underbrush, the slow pulse of roots beneath the earth.
It was terrifying—and exhilarating.
"I shouldn't even be alive," Kael muttered, leaning back against the stone. "They'll search the whole Shard. If they catch me…"
His thoughts trailed off. He didn't have to finish the sentence.
He had no family name to shield him, no sect position to bargain with. If the Ember Fang elders discovered he'd bonded with the Nexus, he'd become either a weapon or a sacrifice.
His hands tightened into fists.
The Nexus pulse deepened, resonating with his rising emotions. A faint ring of light spread across the ground beneath him, then faded like a ripple.
"…You can feel me," he whispered. "You're… alive, aren't you?"
It wasn't alive in a human sense—no voice answered—but he could sense its awareness. The fragment was like a vast ocean pressed into a single stone, shifting whenever his thoughts stirred it.
He closed his eyes. The exhaustion hit all at once. The chase, the awakening, the fight—it was too much.
I need to hide. I need time.
His mind flashed with the image of the Nexus beacon burning above the Shard like a cosmic flare. Everyone must have seen it. Every sect in the region. The whole world would know something had awakened tonight.
And he was at the center of it.
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Far above, back in the ruins, Elder Rokan stood at the edge of the southern cliff, eyes narrowed. The trail of residual energy stretched toward the forest.
"South," he said.
Dozens of disciples formed search formations. Lanterns lit the night like fireflies as they poured down the mountain paths.
One elder stepped forward, frowning. "Elder Rokan, if the Nexus beacon is responding… are we to inform the Sect Master?"
Rokan's lips pressed into a thin line. "Not yet. The Sect Master doesn't need to know until I have it in my grasp. Whoever this is, they're young. Inexperienced. They won't get far."
His spiritual pressure surged, sending a shiver through the disciples. "Bring them to me alive. Kill anyone who interferes."
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Kael awoke with a start.
He hadn't meant to fall asleep, but exhaustion had dragged him under. Now, the forest was different. Quiet. Too quiet.
He sat up slowly. The Nexus pulse thrummed uneasily, like a warning.
Then he felt it.
A presence—massive, refined, and razor-sharp—was cutting through the forest like a blade through silk. It wasn't one of the outer disciples. This was someone powerful.
Kael crouched lower behind the boulder, heart hammering. He tried to quiet his breathing, but the pressure approaching made the air heavy.
Branches snapped softly somewhere beyond the treeline. Lantern light didn't accompany it. Whoever it was moved like a predator—silent, deliberate.
The Nexus fragment pulsed again. Not in panic this time, but in… recognition.
Kael froze.
"…You know this presence?" he whispered.
The pulse grew stronger.
Through the darkness, a figure emerged between the trees, wrapped in flowing robes that shimmered faintly under the moonlight. Their face was shadowed by a hood, but Kael caught the faint glint of silver eyes.
They were alone. And they weren't searching like the sect disciples—they were walking directly toward him, as if they already knew where he was.
Kael's muscles tensed. Run? Fight? Neither seemed wise.
The figure stopped a few paces away. The air between them felt stretched tight, like the moment before a storm breaks.
Then, in a calm, almost amused voice, they said:
"So… you're the one the Nexus chose."
Kael's breath caught in his throat.
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Author's Note
Thanks for reading Chapter 3: The Beacon of the Shard ✨
Kael's power has drawn the eyes of more than just his sect. Next chapter, the hooded figure will change everything 👀