If he didn’t know better, Kael might have thought this forest was endless. Each tree was unique, yet they all looked the same, blurring into an unchanging sea of towering trunks. As he walked, countless trees passed him by, their silent forms stretching endlessly into the distance.
The forest was eerily quiet, the usual sounds of birds and insects absent. Only the rustling leaves and his own footsteps broke the stillness. Tap, tap, tap. His pace was steady, fast but unhurried. Small branches and loose stones crunched beneath his boots, the sound reminiscent of footsteps pressing into fresh snow on a cold winter day.
The methodical rhythm of footsteps suddenly ceased. Kael narrowed his eyes, as if trying to focus on something unseen before him.
Before a single thought could fully form, instinct took over. His body twisted sharply, moving with an almost inhuman fluidity. He threw his shoulder back in a sudden motion, his black hair whipping through the air, caught in the wake of his rapid turn.
At that exact moment, a pale figure streaked past him, its claws slicing through the air, missing his throat by a hair’s breadth.
“Fast.”
Kael’s expression remained indifferent, but his eyes strained to keep up with its movement.
The instant the creature passed him, its attack narrowly missing his vitals, Kael’s head snapped toward it. His stance adjusted instinctively, ensuring not a single blind spot remained for the abomination to exploit.
As soon as his eyes regained focus, the creature was already upon him.
Kael’s eyes widened slightly in realization before he whipped up his cane with terrifying speed. The pale hand, once again aiming for his throat, was struck mid-air, deflecting its path. Even so, its claws barely grazed his chin, leaving a thin, stinging cut.
The sheer force of Kael’s deflection, combined with the terrifying speed at which the creature had lunged, threw it off balance. It tumbled forward, rolling several meters away before swiftly recovering and springing back to its feet. It turned toward Kael, its mouth opening as if to hiss, but only a faint, rasping breath escaped. Its pale fingers flexed, rubbing the hand Kael had struck—perhaps in pain.
Kael finally had a moment to catch his breath and take in the pale creature before him. As soon as he did, his brow furrowed.
In front of him stood a long, pale creature on all fours. Its front legs ended in what resembled disfigured human hands, with unnaturally long fingers. Its hair fluttered in the wind as it gazed at Kael with deep black eyes—blank, unreadable, as if no thoughts lurked behind them. As if it were nothing more than a beast.
But it wasn’t.
This was a Dreadborn, one of the creatures that bore the body of a beast but possessed an intelligence close to that of a human. Standing on all fours, its back reached Kael’s stomach, but if it were to rise onto its hind legs, it would tower over him by nearly half a meter.
Kael stared at the creature, his expression cold and unreadable. His thoughts collided and reformed at an alarming rate as he systematically evaluated the monster. With a calculated motion, he unbuttoned his coat and tossed it aside.
The coat would offer no protection in this fight, so there was no point in ruining it. The moment it hit the ground, the pale creature lunged at Kael once more, seemingly enraged by the pain he had inflicted upon it.
Kael swiftly moved aside, narrowly dodging yet another strike aimed at his vital point. He gripped his cane in his left hand while his right rested on the knife fastened to the left side of his belt.
The creature unleashed a relentless flurry of attacks. Kael dodged and parried with precision, his movements fluid yet deliberate. Small beads of sweat formed on his forehead, and a thin streak of blood trickled down from his chin.
Kael’s combat style had no name. It might have seemed unrefined at a glance, but it was a methodical creation, shaped by countless hours of study and, more importantly, forged through battle. Every strike, every movement was backed by a calm, calculating mind. It was a style tailored to him alone, one that few would find practical in battle if they attempted to wield it.
As the battle dragged on, more cuts appeared on Kael’s body, and sweat now dripped onto the dry ground beneath him. Yet his expression remained indifferent, his gaze locked onto the abomination before him. It was as if all unnecessary thoughts had been pushed aside—his mind completely focused on the fight, never letting the creature out of his sight for even a split second
Soon, Kael’s deep green eyes sharpened. The Dreadborn had finally made a mistake. Whether it was due to a lack of battle experience or the frenzy of failing to kill him, it didn’t matter. The opportunity Kael had been waiting for had finally revealed itself.
As soon as the opportunity arose, Kael went on the offensive. The creature had miscalculated by only a hair’s breadth, but that was enough.
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It swung its arm down from above, aiming to crush Kael’s head on the spot. He parried the strike and swiftly shifted his weight. The moment the impact was deflected, Kael sprang forward, finally drawing the blade his hand had rested on throughout the entire fight.
He closed the distance in an instant, now standing face-to-face with the creature. His arm snapped forward as he thrust the blade toward the creature’s neck. The steel slid in effortlessly. Just as quickly as it entered, Kael wrenched it free, twisting the blade on the way out. Instantly, blood gushed from the wound like a fountain.
Yet the creature seemed indifferent, or perhaps it hadn’t even noticed. Snarling, it flung its claws at Kael’s head, now seemingly even more enraged. The position Kael had placed himself in made it impossible to dodge, but he was prepared. At the last moment, he turned his head, shielding his vital points. The claws tore deep into his flesh, carving a path from his neck up toward his chin, leaving jagged, bleeding wounds.
Kael pushed himself away from the creature with all his strength, rolling several meters before swiftly rising to his feet. The creature glared at him with furious eyes before launching into a sprint toward him once more. But as it did, its legs suddenly buckled, as if it had lost control of them.
Panting heavily, the creature struggled back to its feet, still determined to tear Kael apart. Yet, the moment it tried to move, its limbs gave out again. This time, it never rose.
The pale creature twitched slightly as it lay in a growing pool of its own blood—it had finally bled out. Even in its last moments, it never realized how lethal a wound Kael had inflicted. And before it could comprehend its own demise, its mind turned foggy, its body failing it completely.
“Argh.” Kael involuntarily let out a low grunt as he pressed a hand against his neck.
Blood seeped between his fingers as he felt the three deep wounds carved into his skin, just barely missing his artery. These wounds were not deadly, especially for a Luminaire, but still, it hurt like hell.
Kael sheathed his knife and used his cane to walk toward the Dreadborn creature. As he reached it, he hunched down and grabbed it by its greasy hair, taking a closer look. Its head was disproportionate to its body, with a row of human-like teeth, its grin stretching almost to its ears. Its black eyes were wide open, staring directly at Kael as if sizing him up.
Kael stared back with a bland expression, a hint of disgust visible.
“Ugly bastard.”
Kael still needed food, but he was unwilling to eat the creature. After all, it was probably poisonous, or at least that’s what he told himself. He walked to his coat, draped it over his shoulders, and continued along the path, this time keeping a hand tightly on his neck.
This fight had been unnecessarily deadly, but it was not without reason. From the moment Kael took on this mission, he had already decided not to reveal his Luminaire powers unless absolutely necessary. Everything about it raised alarms, from the noble families requesting it to the secrecy surrounding it.
The noble families acted righteously on the surface but carried out all sorts of dirty work behind the scenes. For the sake of the mission, Kael had to remain unnoticed. There was rarely a better time to eliminate someone than when they were the ones making sure no traces were left behind.
Not only would that prevent any leaked details about the family, but it also meant there was no one left to be rewarded after the mission.
Even though there were still a few days before he would reach the meeting point, he was unwilling to take any risks. Given how high-end this mission seemed, he was certain the family had taken measures to ensure nothing went unnoticed in the surrounding area.
There was also a second reason Kael was unwilling to use his Luminaire abilities at the moment. Though it might have seemed effortless from the outside when a Luminaire activated their motes, the reality was far from it. The fundamental concept of using a mote was difficult to grasp, even for Kael. However, he had developed a way to visualize it, making it easier to understand.
First, one had to imagine how thoughts were created and destroyed. Kael envisioned them as bubbles. A human formed around 250,000 thoughts each day, constantly using them for various actions. Even something as seemingly unconscious as blinking required thoughts. Each step taken also consumed thoughts.
New thoughts formed when existing ones collided. If two thought bubbles connected but led nowhere, they would break apart in the human mind. However, if the connection created an idea or a meaningful new thought, it would remain intact.
To put this into a practical example: if Kael wanted to drink tea, he would need to form two different thoughts. As he willed himself to lift the teacup, ideas would rapidly come together, though this process happened in an instant. One thought would be to grab the teacup, and the second would be to lift it to his mouth.
Now comes the second part of activating a mote, one with even more difficult fundamentals to grasp. Unlike beasts, humans had wills. If one did not will specific things to happen, their thoughts would simply collide and form new ones in a very primal way.
For example, beasts produced far fewer thoughts each day than humans, but that was fine because they lacked a will. Without a will to guide them, their thoughts followed a natural, instinctual pattern, forming around basic needs such as eating, running, and hunting.
And now, motes themselves. Simple, yet extremely complex. Motes contained both wills and thoughts. However, these wills functioned more like natural laws; each mote represented the essence of the earth and its fundamental principles.
If one were to find a wild mote and wished to claim it, they would have to refine it using their own will and thoughts, essentially overriding the mote’s existing will and thoughts. It was a tiresome and demanding procedure.
Activating a mote, bringing it to its bound form, was also an incredibly complex process. Each mote had a predetermined bound form that a Luminaire could not alter, no matter how much they willed it. It was as if an unbreakable law of the universe dictated that specific motes would always take on specific bound forms upon activation.
Upon refining a mote and making it their own, a Luminaire would intuitively sense how the mote would manifest upon activation. Their task was to direct their thoughts and will toward the mote’s bound form, aligning themselves with its natural essence.
Bringing a mote into its bound form was also mentally exhausting. If Kael were to summon his soulbound mote into a rod, it would instantly consume 20,000 thoughts. This was the second reason he was avoiding the use of his motes so close to the meeting place.
Although thoughts naturally regenerated over time, he wanted to be as close to his peak as possible when meeting with the Eirendaile member. He was unsure how they would greet him; he could only speculate.