Storm was a blur beneath the stars. Even at the speed he was going, navigating through the dense web of trees and branches wasn’t difficult. It was as mindless to Storm as breathing. He could see as if he were moving in slow motion, leaping from branch to branch, flashing across the forest floor.

Glancing at the treetops, he already knew Caim’s plan of action. He would be taking the aerial route, undoubtedly, as was his won’t. Although Storm was sure of his speed against his brother’s, his mind returned to the emerald gem residing in his pocket and the will driving Caim. He would take no chance in losing it.

I feel stronger, he thought. Maybe it’s the confidence in overcoming the old man’s final challenge. Either way, I feel like I could keep this pace up most of the night. Focusing on his inner aura, he felt a fire burning within like a bed of coals. Been a minute since I last used my Limit Seal, his thoughts shifted. Maybe I should give it another shot. Besides, Caim never said we couldn’t use them, right? And if I don’t practice it, I’ll never learn to cope with the aftereffects.

“Sorry, Caim, but your chances are about to get even slimmer!”

Storm’s body was soon burning like an open flame, giving him the appearance of a comet tearing through the forest. A blazen trail was left in his wake that burnt leaves and left the air steaming hot. Storm took a deep breath as he began to siphon the blazing aura back into his body, leaving nothing but a shiny silvery mist that rose from him like smoke from a fire. He winced, feeling a burning pain as he absorbed the aura back into himself, fusing it with his bloodstream. Storm’s eyes illuminated brightly as newfound speed and power swelled through him, lifting his aura presence significantly.

“Blood Aura,” Storm whispered. “And it’s feeling stronger than ever!”

A silver haze rose off him as he shot through the forest. He felt as if his body weighed nothing. His muscles grew slightly more pronounced, his eyesight keener, and his balance more dexterous. The trees he passed cracked under his pressure, and the wake of torn air was so sharp that it sliced through leaves; they dashed and spun in the air, but long before finding solace on the ground, Storm was gone with the wind.

I forgot how good this feels!

***

“Yosha!!!” Caim shouted as he flashed along the treetops, perfectly jumping from each one with agile footwork. He soared through the air, flipping from branch to far-off branch, until his eyes fell on the great white castle, sitting so far away and silent upon Risia.

“I’ll see you soon, up close!” he cried out, his foot missing the next branch.

Crack!

Caim slipped and fell through the canopy of trees. Luckily grasping a branch with his right hand, Caim swung back around, launching his body up, feet first. His eyes fell on two bright yellow eyes watching him as he did; the eyes of a little owl perched within a hole in a tree trunk. Caim smiled as he flipped his feet over his head, leveling himself out, and dropped back down. A moment later, his feet touched the ground softly.

Caim laughed, looking back up at the owl. “That’s a good hiding spot!”

Not a half moment later, Caim had flashed to the top of the tree the owl was hiding in. He stretched his arms and cracked his back, thinking about how he would soon discover the secrets of the gem once it was in his possession.

“You’ll be mine soon, mystery gem!” He smacked his fist into his open hand.

Soon enough, Caim was flashing along the treetops again. It seemed that all he could think about was the gift their grandfather had given them. What secrets did it hold? It had to be powerful if Ronin had chosen to give it to them as a result of their final training. He inhaled deeply as he landed on a thick branch that began to bend beneath his weight and momentum; it bent and bent and bent until it snapped back, catapulting Caim high into the night sky.

“Wahoo!!!”

Before he knew it, he was high above Neverend, flying up and into the sky. He shot up like a bullet, piercing the closest veil of clouds. True joy radiated from his face as he came to a slow hovering stop. The moons gazed brightly at him, and he stood as a tiny silhouette before their light. Caim closed his eyes and lifted his arms out to his sides. He loved this feeling. The silence without silence. The wind in the sky. The true feeling of freedom.

“One day,” Caim whispered, looking up. “I will ride upon your back, Miss Night.” A mighty shooting star flashed across the sky, leaving a thinning trail of light like an arrow of fire.

“That’s a promise!” his eyes brightened. “Until then!”

Caim laid back, letting himself fall. He gazed up at the thousands of stars, the tiny embers of light that poked through Night’s transparent wings. He fell faster and faster, the crazed wind whipping all about him. Turning himself face down, the forest became bigger and bigger, and coming to a swift yet silent stop, Caim’s feet touched down on the same branch he had leapt from.

“The race!” Caim suddenly cried out. “I forgot!” He tore at his hair. “The gem!” An abrupt realization took hold of him as he thought of it, and it was then that he realized in a sudden epiphany what the stone’s true purpose really was.

“I think I just figured it out! Storm!! I figured it out!”

Caim took off flying as fast as he could. He had thought up only one possible explanation for the gem, which had been almost perfectly flat on both sides. He smiled in his heart, imagining what Storm would think when he told him he had discovered its secret. Then, in the far distance, through the foggy clouds, he thought he saw the sparkle of Lake Senyria. The end of the race. The finish line. The gem in his hands.

“Yosha!! I can see the end! Strange, I thought it was further? Oh well, must mean that I’m the fastest that there is! Faster even than Bolt, who Fenrir couldn’t even catch!”

Soaring through the sky, Caim finally descended past the last lining of trees. Coming to a sliding stop on rocky ground, Caim looked out from the edge of a cliff. In the distance, the white castle glowed like a diamond, but there was no lake in sight, nor the Great Tree that rose from the center of it. He wondered why he was standing on a cliff, looking off of Falia, instead of standing before Lake Senyria. He then realized, undeniably, that he had definitely, without a doubt. . . .

“Storm! You bastard! You didn’t tell me the right way to go!” His shout caused dozens of birds to take flight from the trees behind. He spun around and pointed his finger at them. “Stop doing that!”

It was then that Caim heard something, something different than the regular sounds of the forest. He had been so distracted by what he thought was a devious trick played on him by his brother, that he failed to notice the presence of a creature, much greater than himself, descending upon him from above. The last thing Caim saw was the shadow of two wings silhouetted before the moonlight.

***

Storm’s sword sliced through the air in a clean arc, splitting a tree that stood in his path. He found it was easier to remove the obstacle than to go around it. Far behind him and what seemed like ages later, he heard the sound of the tree crashing into the ground. He laughed, feeling stronger than ever.

Chink!

Storm slid his katana back into its sheath and kept running. His breathing had become heavier, and the silver vapor that once rose so steadily from his body was thinning. Blood Aura was the technique of releasing his inner energy like a flame, then re-absorbing it back into himself, fusing it with his bloodstream. It was his unique ability: his Limit Seal.

If every sorian has their own unique Limit Seal, I wonder what some of the other ones are, Storm pondered. Caim’s is far different from mine, and the old man said that most sorians never learn of their own seal or how to call upon it. I guess I wouldn’t have discovered mine had I not almost been killed by the flares back when I was a kid. . . .

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It was a few shades after midnight when he came upon a clearing lit up by moonlight. The silver vapor rising from him had grown ever thinner and weaker, and he felt a sudden spike of weariness as the last of it dissipated. Blood Aura had faded. He felt his muscles tighten, and his mind growing faint.

“It seems . . . I’m still far from mastering it, after all,” he let out a fatigued breath. “And that was only using the first stage,” he muttered. “Can’t imagine how I would feel from the second, or even the third.”

Looking around, he recognized the clearing by a tall pile of stones stacked upon each other, and realized that it was the final path marker before getting to the Great Tree. Storm closed his eyes, sensing for Caim. Despite his natural skill in detecting aura presence, Caim was untraceable to him, as if he were cloaked. Suspicions arose, but he pushed them aside, for there was no way Caim could have kept up with him while he had been using Blood Aura.

Feeling exhausted, Storm decided to rest for a few minutes and recover his energy. Sitting down on a patch of grass, he reached into his pocket, finding a torn hole. His heart jumped as he quickly double-checked it. A great sense of relief settled in as he found the gems cool, smooth surface in his other pocket. He laughed to himself.

Thank the gods. That was close. Storm wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead. He tried not to think of what Caim would have said had he been there to witness the hole in Storm’s jacket. He would have never heard the end of it.

Storm held the cold gem-like stone between his fingers, taking notice of its surprisingly smooth edges. It was fairly flat on both sides, though it had some substance to it. Holding it close to his eye, he could see what looked like a living stream within it. He had never seen anything like it, as if the gem were holding the essence of the wind itself. His inner feeling told him that he held something of deep significance, and Storm wondered why it had been given to them in the first place. He wondered where it had come from and, most of all, the secrets that it held.

He mentioned it being given to him by an alchemist named Galileo, whoever that was. The old man never spoke of them before. In all the time he had spent with Ronin, Storm had never known him to have any friends or family. He felt a pinch of sadness at the thought.

His friend must have passed, thought Storm. Maybe that’s why his Inner Depths is so dark. I wonder if he has any family at all anymore, at least, other than us.

Storm sighed. We don’t know anything about his past at all, do we?

Holding the gem between his fingers, he gazed deeper at it, as if waiting for it to reveal something about itself. “What am I thinking? It’s just a gem, right—”

Storm suddenly dropped the stone on the grass, as if it had bitten him. It had very quickly become colder than ice, and the inner swirling was spinning wildly like a tornado. Had his thoughts triggered this drastic change?

“What is this thing?” Storm said, cautiously picking it up. It was far too cold for him to hold with one hand for very long. His confused thoughts were abruptly interrupted by a loud shout, and he jolted to attention. He froze, trying to reassure himself that Caim couldn’t have possibly caught up yet. A second shout brought him to his feet quickly.

“I am the Dragon King!” It came from the edges of the trees just behind him. “Yosha!!!”

Storm whipped around and stared up at the treetops, only to feel a surge of wind hit his face like a hurricane. He shielded his eyes, trying to focus on whatever was moving so fast in his direction. An enormous serpentine body rose into shape above the trees, lifted by two monolithic wings, and followed lastly by a long, winding tail that slithered across the sky like a serpent’s. He gazed up in absolute disbelief as the entire creature came into view.

“Oi, Storm!!! Look what I found!!”

This cannot be happening . . .

Caim wasn’t jumping between the trees. He wasn’t running along the ground. He wasn’t even flying. He was riding on top of an enormous creature that looked just like a dragon. A sudden change in the creature’s color confirmed to Storm what it truly was.

A Chameleoth!? What in the gods’ sight is happening!?

Storm watched in astonishment as the creature came fully into view. It had a long snout with pointed ivory teeth, and keen orange eyes that watched closely Storm as it passed. Its body was incredibly long, snake-like, with four short legs that clung to its serpentine form as it swam through the air. Just as it passed over Storm, the creature’s scales, which were originally a shade of dark gray, shifted to match the pale glow of the moons. As it passed out of the clearing, its color blended back in with its surroundings.

Storm realized he couldn’t feel Caim’s aura presence at all, even at this range.

So, that’s why I couldn’t sense you! The chameleoth is cloaking your aura!

“I’m the Dragon King, and I’m riding on Night!” Caim cheered. “Yosha!!! I found a dragon! Storm! Look! I told you dragons are real! They’re really real!!” Caim stood on the creature’s head, holding on tightly to its whiskers.

“Are you crazy!? How did you even find that thing!? And no! That thing is not a dragon, Caim! It’s a chameleoth!!” Storm yelled back, but Caim was already getting further and further away.

“That’s cheating, Caim!”

Storm watched as the chameleoth’s looming figure passed away and over the trees, its great shadowed wings pushing out gusts of wind like a storm. And then, just as it had come, it went, and Storm heard a voice faintly calling back to him. . . .

“I’m gonna win, Storm! The gem will be mine, forever!!” Caim’s voice laughed into the night.

“You have got to be kidding me,” Storm grit his teeth, thrusting the stone back into his pocket and dashing for the edge of the clearing. “Why does every creature in the world love him!?”

Storm shook the onslaught of questions from his mind, trying to focus on the most important thing—beating Caim to the finish line. He ripped up his sleeves and flashed away into the trees.

There’s only one way to win this. But it’s going to come with a price. I have to try the second level of Blood Aura! Even if I don’t know the full effects of using it yet, and even if I’m not recovered from using it earlier. But I can’t worry about that now! I can recover from the aftereffects in Lake Senyria! No physical pain will be worse than losing to Caim in this race! I have to win!

A crimson flame lit up his body, and his eyes grew an even brighter shade of green than before. With a deep breath, Storm found his focus, slowly absorbing the burning aura back into his body. He winced under the pain as the feeling of fire passed through his veins. With great tenacity, Storm bore the hurt, and an even more potent silver mist began to rise up from him, this time with faint sparks of flame woven into it.

“Blood Aura, times two!!”

Ignoring the pleas of his body and his mind, Storm flashed on and into the forest.

There’s no way I’m letting him win! He’ll never shut up about it. He’ll never ever shut up about it.

Everything was a blur, and Storm could hardly keep himself from smashing into branches. His heart was a hammer pounding in his chest. The already evaporated aura in his bloodstream had left him feeling weary, and he hadn’t had enough time to recover properly in the clearing. Anger began to fuel him as he pushed on, and the feeling of being weak ate at him from the inside.

“What use are you if you fail me so easily, body!?” Storm roared, ignoring the pain. “Strongest swordsman in the world!? The strongest swordsman to ever exist? You’re a thousand cycles too young if you can’t even win a stupid race!”

He could soon feel the powerful gusts of wind from the chameleoth’s wings again, and knew that he was gaining on Caim. Just as he was gauging the distance between them, a slight opening in the trees ahead revealed something other than Caim and the chameleoth, something else that was there with them. As he focused his eyes, a presence came to life within the trees. A presence that was running with them. Fast. It was there, and it was real, racing underneath the chameleoth like a predator hunting its prey. Storm flashed past a thick tree, his eyes noticing three massive gashes left in the trunk.

A sudden feeling of fear etched its way into Storm’s mind. Whatever it was racing ahead of him, it was becoming increasingly clear that it was huge, and dangerous.

That better not be what I think it is. But they wouldn’t be this close to the Great Tree, would they?

Storm’s right hand grasped the sheath of his katana, his thumb pushing the blade out a hair. He glanced up at the trees then jumped through the branches, flashing along the treetops as Caim had done earlier. Higher ground was most often the better vantage point.

“CAIM!” Storm shouted, but he knew his brother wouldn’t hear him over the gusts of wind from the chameleoth’s wings. Storm’s face grew paler as exhaustion sank further into his bones. His hands were numb, his muscles heavy, and his thoughts getting more and more cloudy. He shouldn’t have used Blood Aura in its second form, not when he was already weakened. That was a mistake.

I have a bad feeling about this. That presence. The gashes in the tree trunk . . . Something’s wrong.

He could now clearly feel the beast, its energy like pure bloodlust ripping through the forest just ahead of him. Then, just like that, its presence vanished.

***

Not much further ahead, Caim stood on the chameleoth’s head, holding on tightly to its whiskers. The creature was so much bigger than anything he had ever seen, let alone ridden. Both he and Storm could have easily ridden on top of its head with room to spare. It was a thought that brought him nothing but joy. He squinted his eyes, and the destination of their race came into sight.

“Yosha!” Caim cried, raising his fist. “The Great Tree!! Let’s go, dragon!! To the lake!”

With a huge smile on his face, he watched the sparkling lake and the Great Tree come into view. Its crystal-clear water reflecting the stars lit up Caim’s eyes, and standing in the center of it was the greatest tree of their world, rising thousands of feet into the night sky, the Nocturnis Aqua.

The Great Tree reached so high into the sky that the top could not be seen at all. Its branches stretched out like a thousand giant arms trying to encompass the entirety of the lake. As Caim stared up in silent awe, he could see something within its distant branches — hundreds upon hundreds of tiny sparkling orbs, the tree spirits, gazing back at him like stars.

“Alright, Storm!” Caim beamed. “Looks like I get to hold the magic stone now!”

A random flicker of movement caught his eye from below.

“Storm?”

Caim felt an unexpected feeling of bloodlust coming up towards him. It was a primeval presence he had felt only once before, long ago. A flash of crimson eyes came into his mind. A shiver ran down his spine, and he felt now more than ever the cold bite of the wind.

“It’s here,” he whispered. “The Master of the Forest.”