A strong hand gripped the front of his shirt and ripped him out of the River of Death dropping him as soon as he was fully out.

The boy sputtered and coughed, ejecting the black water from his body onto the sandy shore. Awareness came to him in bursts and as he recovered, finally looking up at the man in front of him.

The man was imposing, a full seven feet tall. Long black hair pulled into a ponytail framed his face, which was full of sharp edges. He had the perfect face and the perfect glow that all powerful Cultivators had. He didn’t exude power, but the way he held himself implied that he could, which was even scarier.

He was dressed in what looked like shadows, smoky blackness that shifted and moved along his frame.

The boy caught sight of something else close behind the large man, a familiar sight he hadn’t seen in a long time. The hooded specter known as Death floated close behind the shadowed man.

The man only gave the boy a few more seconds to recover before he forcefully grabbed the boy’s face in one hand and forced his eyes up to look at him.

“Who. Are. You?” The deep, commanding voice of the man enunciated clearly to the boy.

“Nobody,” a whisper answered. “I am just another broken man.”

“Every Cultivator that ever chooses to truly rise up in that broken world is at least slightly broken themself. Now you might have lived through more than most, but broken men don’t look for every chance they can find to escape, even up until their own death.”

“I didn’t do that,” the boy finally answered in a louder voice. “I just laid there and hoped for it to be over quickly.”

“Untrue,” the man answered him. “You were figuring out if you could somehow dodge the blade coming down at you and then, if you could distract him by kicking him in the balls, you might’ve been able to run for it. You only realized when the blade came down that your body was unable to respond. Your body might have been broken long ago and even your mind. But your Soul, especially one such as yours, is unbreakable and you know it.”

“And so I repeat,” the man continued, still holding the boy’s face. “What is your name?”

“I…” the boy started to say before visibly swallowing and then trying again. “I am Mordekai Eritos.”

“Yesss,” the man hissed. “Eritos. You are the unbowed warrior. I don’t care how much they have taken from you, how many threads of Fate force you to lose again and again. Do not forget. You will forever be unbowed.”

The boy, once again known as Mordekai Eritos looked back at the shadowy man, recognition of himself and where he was, flashing through his eyes.

“There you are Mordekai,” the man said.

Kai looked up at the man, a broken anger ripping him out of the haze he’d been in for a year. However, this anger was tempered again as he realized that he’d just been ripped out of the River of Death.

“So. I’m finally dead then,” Kai said.

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“You would think so, wouldn’t you?” Death finally said from behind the shadow man, lazily swinging his scythe.

“The truth is, you tied yourself down during your Connection. Unlike those of this world, you were given a choice, and you chose a different path than I had thought you would.”

“Oh, don’t try to soften the blow,” the man of shadow said, having finally let go of Kai’s face. “You chose the wrong path, the wrong energy, and it cost you everything.”

The man continued. “You, who have all the potential in the world, chose to chain yourself down with marred gold, and for what? For you to die like cattle, like a piece of broken property?”

“I chose peace,” the words flowed from Kai’s mouth in a whisper as he looked down. “Hunter wanted me to choose peace, and I wanted peace and so I chose to live with them, with her.”

“Oh, how naive. Look at me boy.”

Kai looked back up towards the man.

“People like you and me, we aren’t built for peace. We are birthed for the very chaos that the gods abhor, for the peace you chase is a farce, one that is spun as a tall tale by Fate to all Mortals. We, unlike those foolish Cultivators out there, war not to conquer, but to bring true peace. We fight so those that want peace don’t have to.”

Kai absorbed his words, turning them over in his head as he struggled to understand what the man was telling him.

“I failed then didn’t I?” Kai finally asked. “I’ve lost everything I ever cared about and then even lost my own life in the end.”

“You’d think so, wouldn’t you?” The man of shadow said. “No, the truth is, your body is not dead yet. Very close to death, but the wolves have not started to chew on your flesh just yet. You have time. Time to decide what you want to do.”

Kai snapped his head up to look at him. “You will let me go back? Give me another chance to raze that filth off the face of this world?”

Then he looked down dejected as he realized. “Never mind. It is foolish to go back like this. I’m just a mere mortal again. There is no chance that I could ever beat the lowly slaver guards, let alone Devar himself.”

“You live under the misconception that the Mortal and Immortal Worlds run on only one type of energy,” the man said.

“You see, what Fate and those wannabe Primals up there don’t want mortals to know is that Dian, or what you call Heavenly Energy is one of many sources of energy that used to run wild on your world. At least, until those fools led a coup and banished the other energies to the void.”

The man stopped for a second and then continued. “Never mind all of the history, which I could spend years talking to you about. What should matter to you is that you have a second chance, one to form a Connection to an older energy, one known as Chi. An energy that even the gods themselves fear because of its unpredictability.”

“So then, how about it? A second chance to right your wrongs?”

“Will it give me the power to wipe that scum out and take my revenge?”

“It will not give you anything,” the man of shadow answered. “You must earn every scrap of power from here on out. You must find your own techniques, for the old ones that used to exist have been wiped out by those that call themselves your deities. You must create your own path.”

The tall man held out an open hand, a black seed floating above his palm. The seed seemed dense with power rolling off of it in waves.

“All I can give you is this seed of Chi. It has the power to not only help you form a Connection but to push you onto a stage of power you hadn’t yet reached using Dian. A boost you will need if you wish to rise in the Mortal World once again.”

“Yet,” the man said, pulling back his hand as Kai reached eagerly for it. “I must warn you. Assimilating this power is the most dangerous thing you have ever undertaken until now. Losing even a split second of control over this power will result in it rending your Soul to ribbons, leaving it unable to even float fully through the River of Death. For all intents and purposes, a broken Soul is worse than even death itself, so I ask once again. Do you accept this burden?”

“If it lets me carry out my revenge, I don’t care if it destroys the world with it,” Kai said. “I accept everything.”

The shadowy man suddenly snapped his hand forward with the seed and slammed it into Kai’s chest, forcing the seed of power into his Soul.

Kai felt himself rise, his Soul finally responding after a year of absolutely nothing. As he felt himself being pulled back to consciousness, he asked the man, “Wait, your name. What is it?”

“Oh, that’s a question I haven’t heard in a while. I haven’t used a name in such a long time… I wonder. I suppose you can just call me Chaos.”