The roar of the crowd was a living thing—a beast that fed on blood and desperation. Kairos Veyra felt its hunger vibrate through the iron grates beneath his boots as he stepped into the arena, his chains clanking like a death knell. Above him, the sky-isle of Zephyros floated, its jagged edges cutting into clouds stained pink by the setting sun. The air reeked of sweat, rust, and the metallic tang of old blood.
This is where princes go to die, he thought bitterly, tightening his grip on the chipped gladius in his hand.
The arena was a pit of sand and shadows, surrounded by tiers of jeering spectators. Their faces blurred into a mosaic of greed and malice, their voices chanting for the fight to begin. Across from him, his opponent—a hulking brute from the northern wastes—cracked his knuckles, his teeth filed into fangs. Kai didn't need to see the man's eyes to know they held no mercy. Mercy didn't survive in the skies.
"Begin!"
The brute charged, his axe swinging in a vicious arc. Kai pivoted, letting momentum carry him sideways, and kicked a spray of sand into the man's face. The crowd howled as the northerner staggered, clawing at his eyes. Too easy, Kai thought, but the victory was hollow. Every kill here etched deeper into the hollow where his pride once lived.
A flash of memory seared his mind: Cassian's smile across the feast table, golden wine swirling in his cup. "To the future king," his brother had said. The wine burned Kai's throat—not from spice, but betrayal. He'd collapsed, veins on fire, as Cassian whispered, "The throne was never yours to claim."
The axe grazed Kai's shoulder, jolting him back to the present. Blood seeped through his tunic, warm and sticky. The crowd screamed for more.
Focus.
He feinted left, then drove his blade toward the brute's ribs. Steel met flesh—but the northerner roared, slamming a fist into Kai's jaw. Stars exploded behind his eyes as he hit the ground, sand grinding into his wounds. Above him, the brute raised his axe, grinning.
This is how it ends? Kai's hand closed around the only weapon left—the "lucky charm" hanging from his neck, a jagged shard of obsidian given to him by a dying slave. "For vengeance," the man had rasped.
The axe fell.
Kai's blood dripped onto the shard.
Time stopped.
The world froze—the axe hovering inches from his skull, the crowd mid-shout, even the dust motes suspended in air. A voice, neither male nor female, echoed in his skull: [Veil Synchronization: 4%. Available Powers: Chrono-Stutter (1/sec), Spatial Shift (5m radius). Warning: Corruption Threshold at 12%.]
What in the seven skies—?
His left hand burned. He looked down to see his skin crystallizing, glowing veins of amber spreading like cracks in glass. But there was no pain—only power, raw and humming.
He rolled free, seized the axe mid-air, and buried it in the brute's chest.
Time snapped back.
The northerner crumpled, shock etched on his face. The crowd erupted, their cheers morphuring into confusion as Kai stumbled, his corrupted hand trembling. The shard at his neck pulsed like a second heartbeat.
"Cheater!" someone bellowed. Guards surged into the arena, swords drawn. Kai backed away, but his legs buckled—the Chrono-Stutter had drained him.
A hand gripped his arm. "Move, princeling."
Li Na, the silent woman from the slave quarters, hauled him upright. Her face was a mask of scars, but her eyes—sharp and gold-flecked—bore into his. "The Veil chooses martyrs, not survivors," she hissed, dragging him toward a grate in the wall.
"Why help me?" he gasped.
"You're worth more alive."
They plunged into the bowels of Zephyros, the guards' shouts echoing behind them. The tunnels stank of mildew and decay, lit only by flickering bioluminescent fungi. Li Na moved like a shadow, her steps silent. Kai's corrupted hand throbbed, the glow casting eerie shadows on the walls.
"What is this thing?" he demanded, clutching the shard.
"A relic. A curse. Depends on the wielder." She shoved him into a derelict dock, its wooden beams groaning under the weight of a forgotten airship. The vessel was a skeletal wreck, its balloon patched with fungal growth, but its core—a pulsing orb of cerulean light—flared as Kai approached.
"It remembers you," Li Na murmured.
[Warning: Corruption Threshold at 15%.]
The core's light intensified, syncing with the shard's rhythm. Kai's vision blurred—memories not his own flickered: A goddess with stars for eyes, shattering the Veil into seven fragments. A storm devouring kingdoms. A whisper: "Find me."
"We need to go. Now." Li Na yanked him aboard the airship. The dock shuddered as the guards breached the chamber.
Kai gripped the ship's helm. The core flared, and the engine roared to life, fungal patches burning away to reveal gleaming metal. The ship lurched upward, crashing through the dock's roof into the open sky. Wind whipped Kai's hair as Zephyros shrank below, its warlord's enraged bellows lost to the clouds.
Li Na stood beside him, her scars glowing faintly in the Veil's light. "The first fragment is yours," she said. "The next six will test your soul."
[Synchronization: 6%.]
Kai stared at his crystallized hand. "What happens if I fail?"
"The Veil consumes you," she said simply. "And the storm finishes what it started."
The ship soared into the crimson horizon, its course set for secrets buried in the clouds. Behind them, a shadow followed—a figure cloaked in storm-gray, watching. Waiting.