(Flashback interlude during Ryuko’s duel with Kael)
The whip’s crack echoed like a gunshot.
Kael stumbled, his cheek split open by Ryuko’s strike. Blood dripped onto the training grounds, sizzling where it met the charged air around her weapon.
“Pathetic,” she hissed. “The Arbiter’s favorite pet can’t even dodge?”
He lunged, Swiftwind Slash humming—but she pivoted, her whip coiling around his blade. A jerk of her wrist, and the sword clattered away.
“Why are you doing this?” Kael spat. “What did I ever do to you?”
Ryuko froze. For a heartbeat, her mask slipped—not fury in her eyes, but pain.
Then she laughed, harsh and hollow. “You exist.”
Her whip lashed out.
—
Five Years Earlier
The Shirazi clan’s compound stank of blood and incense.
Ryuko knelt in the dojo, her brother Ren’s head cradled in her lap. His breathing was shallow, each gasp spraying flecks of crimson onto her kimono. The wound in his gut seeped through the bandages—a Voidspawn’s claw, poisoned by regret.
“The Arbiter… offered a deal,” Ren whispered. “But I refused. Too… too late now.”
“Shut up,” Ryuko snarled, pressing harder on the wound. “The healers are coming.”
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“Liar.” He smiled, his hand trembling as he touched the twin serpent tattoo on her wrist—the mark of her failed pact. “You tried to save me. But some debts… can’t be repaid.”
The dojo doors slammed open. Her father, Lord Shirazi, loomed in the doorway, his shadow swallowing the moonlight.
“Enough,” he said. “The boy is dead weight.”
Ryuko bared her teeth. “He’s your son.”
“And you are my heir. Act like it.” He tossed a Voidspawn core at her feet. “The Arbiter’s terms are clear. Offer a soul, and it will grant power. His life… or yours.”
Ren’s fingers tightened on her wrist. “Don’t. Please—”
She grabbed the core.
—
The Luminous Realm
Ryuko stood before the Arbiter, Ren’s limp body at her feet.
“A curious choice,” the Arbiter mused, its mercury form reflecting her tear-streaked face. “You sacrifice him… to save him?”
“Just fix him!” she screamed.
“Impossible. But his soul can fuel your ascent. Become my blade, and his death buys you glory.”
The contract flared—a scroll of living flame.
“No.” She stepped back. “I won’t—”
“You already did.”
The Arbiter gestured. Ren’s body dissolved into embers, swirling into the core in her hand.
“The first lesson, vessel: steel cannot bend. Only break.”
—
Present Day
Ryuko’s whip struck Kael’s chest, hurling him into the training ground’s wall.
“Get up,” she snarled. “Or are you as useless as him?”
Kael coughed, his vision swimming. The system flickered:
[RESONANCE XP +20%]
[WARNING: MEMORY BANK CRITICAL—EMILY’S FACE AT 0.5%]
“Who’s ‘him’?” Kael rasped.
Ryuko froze. The whip faltered.
Now.
He lunged, disarming her in a move Lira had drilled a thousand times. They crashed to the ground, her crimson hair fanning across the dirt like blood.
“Tell me,” he demanded.
She laughed, but it cracked. “My brother. My failure. My first sacrifice to the Arbiter.”
The admission hung between them, raw as an open wound.
“Why?” Kael whispered.
Her gaze slid to his wrist, where the Arbiter’s mark glowed faintly. “Because I thought power would fill the void. But it just… burns.”
She shoved him off and stood, retrieving her whip. “Don’t make my mistake, Kael. Either embrace the steel—” She kicked his sword toward him. “—or die soft.”