With wings beating hard, the heron carried its passengers skyward, away from Arcadia's prison. The tower, a grim sentinel of worn stone, echoed with the alarmed cries of the guards, their panic amplified by the frenzied clamor of the general alarm echoing over Arcadia.
As they ascended into the overcast morning sky, Kai fell onto the heron's back, gasping for breath. Sweat trickled down his face, mixing with the blood seeping from the gaping void where his right arm should have been. Newly formed veins and bones flailed wildly behind him in the wind.
As Relay stirred and stretched, Kai gathered him up with his intact arm, securing the creature safely in his lap.
"Was I out long?" Relay mumbled, his connection with Kai lost in the abyss of the soul space. Time, in that place, was impossible to synchronize.
"Two and a half days," Kai bit out, repositioning his fledgling bones and tendons. The pain was a constant companion.
"To think they cut us off..." Relay murmured, looking at Kai. "Why change back? That other guy was doing fine."
"Out of energy," Kai gasped, gulping in the salty sea air as the heron charted a course over the ocean. His gaze locked onto the swarm of hawks that had launched in pursuit, their blue and silver-clad riders on the hunt. "Think I have a solution, though."
With a gritted determination, Kai drew on his blood energy, channeling it into the raw stump of his arm. As new muscles, tendons, and veins began to form, an overwhelming wave of pain washed over him, a brutal reminder of his lost limb. He pushed every ounce of gold energy from his mind to speed the healing process and reduce the pain.
He examined his arm, now sheathed in the cool morning air. Blood slowly formed a skin over his exposed muscles. He watched as it transformed from red to white, the sign of a healing job done. He flexed his new hand, a grimace easing from his face. Quick though the recovery was, the price paid in pain was high.
"How did they manage it?" Relay's voice pierced the rush of wind, his gaze riveted on the advancing hawk riders. Any power that could sever their bond demanded immediate attention.
Kai looked down at his robe. "Heaven Sealing Array." As he spoke, he gestured for the motes to mend the fabric. Once shaped, the motes maintained their form until otherwise directed, regardless of the damage inflicted. His robe flickered golden before it reappeared spotless.
Kai had been trapped inside the array after helping to cure Azurewing. The Lou family had double-crossed him and locked him in prison. That had led to quite the revelation. His soul space was not ‘inside him,’ which is what Kai assumed since it was a ‘mental’ realm.
If the Heaven Sealing Array could cut him off from his soul space, it had to be external to him.
"Those ingrates," Relay growled, hopping down from Kai’s lap to get a clearer view of Arcadia's airborne militia. Thirty hawks bore down on them. "After all, you patched up that old serpent and even resolved its instability."
"They never meant to release me," Kai's voice turned cold. "Scared? Scared of a lone soulforger. I played right into their hands... they're probably haggling over me with other sects as we speak."
Focusing his spiritual vision on his primordial core, Kai studied the twin lights rotating at its center – one prismatic gold, one pure white. That was new. Amidst his encounter with Arcadia's bureaucratic nobles, a power surge rocked his body. The second nucleus in his cells had stabilized, marking the completion of the mysterious process.
But he hadn't felt different. The change in his heart core only became apparent upon close inspection. He hadn't had the luxury of exploration before being ensnared. An entire day with Azurewing's purple-clad protectors had finally won him an audience with the legendary beast.
Recalling his clever negotiations left Kai flushed with indignation. They never intended to honor their bargain. It was painfully clear now. Fooled, Kai chastised himself.
"If they think they can just hunt us down," Relay's voice rumbled, his gaze fixed on the hawk riders armed with longbows and razor-sharp spears, "they are asking to be educated."
"Buy me some time," Kai angled his head towards Relay, "I need to power up." Relay's answering growl echoed in the wind before he vanished, reappearing next to the leading hawk. The golden ferrox assaulted the airborne beast, tearing a chunk of bronze feathers from its body before disappearing again.
Powering up. Kai sifted through the findings of his recent experiment. Imprisoned within his cell, encased in the luminescent Heaven Sealing Array, he strived to decipher the mystery of the leisurely spinning energy cells in his heart core. Initially, he flooded his body with the cleansing white energy, then a mix of white and gold energy. Each attempt offered new insights, but his heart core remained unaffected.
He experimented with various combinations - white, black, gold, and others. However, he hit upon a breakthrough only when he channeled the white energy into his golden core. He strained to recollect the precise details of that pivotal moment.
On his second day of confinement, after a string of fruitless attempts, he mustered the tenacity to push on, commanding the solid energy of his white sternum core and directing it toward his golden core. To his surprise, his core swallowed the energy, channeling it into the rotating white sphere. The transition was so swift that he only continued briefly before halting.
That was a mistake. Kai's body detonated into a blaze of purifying white flame, subjecting him to pure, unadulterated pain. It was not a mere ache or discomfort; Kai was immersed in pain, feeling his very existence being painfully stripped bare, cell by cell. As the transformation neared completion, as he gasped for breath, the white flame sputtered and died out, the painful process reversing itself with equal intensity.
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Exhausted, Kai lay sprawled on the cold stone floor of his cell, drained of energy and spirit, unable to make sense of the torment he had endured. It was even longer before he found the willpower to attempt the process again.
Further attempts confirmed he couldn't infuse more energy into the rotating cells once the transformation began. The core of his primordial center had solidified, impervious to additional energy.
He could only watch as the golden cell in his heart danced in an endless chase with its white counterpart, locked in a relentless cycle he could neither understand nor control. With each revolution, the white energy diminished, leeched away into the gold, until finally, when the power was spent, he reverted to his original form. The more energy he channeled into the white cell, the longer his transformation endured, affording him more time to experiment with his newfound state.
But he remained at the mercy of that ticking clock, unable to stave off the approaching pain. Because the pain never truly receded nor lessened. While his body was adapting, recovering with increased speed each time, his mind revolted, faltered, and ultimately, defied.
In the bleak solitude of his cell, severed from his soul connection, Kai filled his mind to its brim, slowing the world to find a respite from the torturous experiments. He'd pondered a great deal during that lengthy isolation, formulating numerous theories and planning many experiments, but above all, he found rest.
A sudden lurch of the heron forced Kai's attention back to the immediate situation; his hand instinctively clamped onto the feathers to maintain his perch. Spears whizzed by as they made a swift dive and twist to evade the onslaught. Simultaneously, Kai channeled his purifying energy into his golden core, feeding the spinning white sphere.
More. He needed more energy, not just to prolong his transformation but also to access the unique abilities associated with this state. He needed to feed it more energy. Eventually, he might be able to predict the exact amount, but for now, he adhered to the 'more is better' principle.
An arrow whistled perilously close to his head. Kai dodged sideways, following the deadly trajectory of the black-bladed missile with his gaze.
More. The cruel hiss of an arrow slicing through the air was followed by a sickening thud as it plunged into the heron's neck. Warm blood splattered across Kai as they careened downward. Twisting around, he witnessed Relay, a golden blur on a hawk, viciously tearing at the saddle. Abruptly unseated, the rider pitched forward and tumbled toward the unyielding sea beneath.
Impressively, Relay had dispatched half of the enemy's forces, scattering them like leaves in a storm or sending them on a one-way journey to the ocean's depths.
Kai, his heart pounding like a war drum, funneled more and more into his core. An ominous, guttural roar shook the sky, causing the shroud of clouds to quiver in response. Swept up in adrenaline and desperation, Kai knew it was time. Letting go of the injured bird, he forced himself to his feet, his body thrumming with raw energy. Then, he launched himself skyward, catapulting through the cloud layer and into the dazzling, blue expanse. The white clouds around him blazed in the morning sun's radiant orange glow.
Suddenly, there it was - Azurewing. The serpentine body unraveled across the open sky, its grandeur dwarfing everything within sight. The macabre sight of the vestiges of Kai's severed arm dangled from the creature's mouth, reminding him of his gruesome duel.
Kai’s heart hammered like a relentless drumbeat, each pulse echoing in the silence. His breath hitched in his throat as the terror of his situation wrapped around him. Yet, amidst the paralyzing fear, a spark ignited within his chest, the flame of determination fueled by this current threat.
"You and me, Azurewing," Kai's whisper tangled with the wind, the words swept away before they fully left his mouth.
A shiver of dread trickled down his spine as he beheld the monstrous beast bearing down on him. But he didn’t waver. A clash of titanic proportions was inevitable, a sky-high showdown with the azure serpent that had already tasted his blood.
He waited until the very last moment, pushing more and more purifying energy into his heart core. When he could delay no longer, he cut the flow.
Kai exploded into a cloud of white purifying flame, his body pulling itself apart.
As the pain took him, Kai despaired. The memory of meeting Azurewing was still fresh, and he wondered, and not for the first time, how it had come to this.
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Arcadia's protector's grand hall dwarfed Kai, an architectural tribute to some gargantuan deity. Immaculate marble walls cradled tall golden frames that nestled vast panels of vibrant blue crystal. Their ghostly glow dappled the hall, casting an otherworldly gleam that gave Kai the impression of walking beneath waves of Arcadia’s ocean.
Echoing in the cavernous expanse, Kai's footsteps seemed to keep the rhythm of his pounding heart.
"They really want you to feel small here," Relay mused, nestled on Kai's shoulders, his gaze sweeping the grandeur of the chamber.
"Maybe it needs to be this big?" Kai countered. His gaze, wide with awe, strayed towards the imposing dais at the end of the hall. Behind it, a monolithic blue silk curtain billowed in the gentle breeze.
Its rhythmic undulations bore an uncanny resemblance to a liquid wall, waves cascading from the top only to crash into the marble floor.
Kai dropped to kneel at the center of the room, arranging his robe modestly. He directed his gaze towards the dais, his mind awash with anticipation. Days of labyrinthine negotiations with contentious factions had led him to this point. The female and male cultivators of the royal family formed separate alliances, each too engrossed in their mutual rivalry to properly consider his requests.
Yet, he felt ensnared in their power games. His introduction to Azurewing's personal guard had been an ordeal, a day fraught with diplomatic dodging and subterfuge. Still, he had borne it for his safety, subjected himself to the peculiar etiquette of the royal court, including the cryptic instruction to remain stoic and non-reactive to any 'strange' occurrence.
"This humble one offers his service to the exalted Lord Azurewing, the divine protector of Arcadia. May his life be prosperous," Kai cautiously glanced at his guardian tutor hidden between the magnificent columns framing the grand windows.
Lou Xin's approving nod was the reward for his perfectly rehearsed introduction. Kai exhaled a sigh.
"What could a mere child like you possibly offer me?" The voice, a growling rumble, set the blue curtain aflame with movement.
"This one cannot claim expertise but has a modest understanding of soul-related maladies," Kai recited, maintaining a submissive posture. Despite his downcast gaze, his spiritual sight let him perceive the dias and Azurewing's silhouette behind the shifting curtain.
"Indeed?" The azure veil parted, unveiling the colossal serpent, his head the size of a house, with eyes the size of great windows large enough for a family to gather and look out together.
"Approach, little soulforger. Show me the prowess you dared to flaunt in my presence."