“Once we get out of here,” Kai murmured to the sleeping Relay, “we need to ask Meilin what she had in mind when she cultivated this energy.” Too much didn't make sense to him, and cultivating energy you didn’t understand didn’t seem wise. Currently, Kai wasn't feeling very smart.

He felt he had grasped his blood core. His primordial core, which he once thought was rooted in balance, no longer looked like that. The rest of his cores, his knowledge about them, was even sketchier.

Pumping more energy into his palm until it shone vividly, the white light swallowed all other light sources in his cell. He knelt and pushed his powered hand against the Heaven Sealing barrier; the barrier hissed and sparked yet recovered instantly. Elder Lou Siam had made a point to boast about that; the old man had seemed quite pleased.

Here goes nothing.

Through his trials with this dual-reality form, Kai had transported handheld rubble into his soul realm, mirroring how he shifted souls between dimensions.

In this fashion, co-existence was intuitive; he had previously managed to mentally switch between realms. Now, he could be entirely conscious and present in both worlds simultaneously.

At first, Kai felt like a blind man seeing for the first time, initially overwhelmed. Yet swiftly, he was operating independently in both realms. That's when he realized that the clothing he manifested for himself while detained in the orange energy cell was also present in his soul space.

He found that his mote constructs shared the same dual existence with him so long as they remained in contact with his form. But when he disrobed, the motes would stay in the realm where he removed them and disappear from the other.

This discovery led him to experiments with moving small debris between realms. From these trials, Kai believed that anything he could physically touch could be moved between worlds.

His hand tingling with the touch of the orange energy, he willed it into his soul realm. Shards of orange energy broke off his hand and drifted into the spatial void.

The moment power was removed from the containment field, more rushed in to refill it. It was a race against time – could he drain the energy faster than it could refill? He only needed to reach that disk.

Kai fixed his gaze on the array disk tucked in the cube's corner. As intricate as its design was, even minor damage might be enough to cripple it. Both hands now channeled the potent white energy, persistently draining the orange force, letting it bleed into the stark chill of his soul realm. He amplified his efforts.

Almost there.

Applying more pressure, Kai felt the barrier thinning out. Doubling down on his exertions, he experienced a breakthrough as the barrier cracked. He immediately seized the disk with both hands and shunted it to his soul realm. The orange barricade flickered momentarily, then collapsed in a surge of warm light. The barrier down, cries of surprise and the shrill sound of alarms pierced the air outside the cell.

A triumphant laugh rang from Kai, before he promptly collected Relay.

“Relay,” he sent out a mental message. “Come in, pal.”

“I’m here,” Relay shook off the sleepiness, returning to life. Kai settled the golden ferrox on his shoulders, freeing his hands for work.

“Hold on, who are you?” Relay growled, taken aback. “Where’s Kai?”

Delivering a powerful punch to what he assumed was the outer wall, Kai caused an enormous crack to snake from floor to ceiling, triggering a rain of dust and debris. Risky.

“It’s me, Kai,” his deep baritone voice echoed. “No time to explain; we’re escaping. Help if you can.”

Despite the looming danger, Kai couldn't resist confirming his tether – his soul space was operational again! Kai plunged his hand into the fissure, relocating bricks to his soul realm. Inch by inch, they carved an escape route through the formidable outer wall. Kai relentlessly shifted bricks while Relay devoured them.

In no time, a ray of light pierced through a brick-sized gap. Kai filled his lungs with the taste of freedom in the fresh air.

“That’s enough,” a growl echoed through the split in the wall. Kai peered through, meeting the stare of the waiting Azurewing. “I have no desire to harm you, Soulforger.”

“Sorry,” Kai fired back, “but I’ve had my fill of your family’s hospitality.”

A minute's more labor and they emerged into the daylight through the fractured outer wall.

“That’s as far as you go,” The azure serpent hovered in the courtyard, ready to confront Kai and Relay. Its thunderous voice triggered a minor avalanche in the wall.

As Kai sidestepped the tumbling debris, a sharp pain coursed through his every cell. He burst into a cloud of white, then descended, reshaping into a gold energy manifestation. From the golden cloud, his juvenile form stepped down, only to meet the snapping jaws of the azure serpent tearing his arm off.

The agony of transformation was so intense that Kai barely registered his lost arm.

Kai flooded himself with gold energy, slowing the world's pace around him. His first act was to conjure motes to materialize new clothes. Each transformation dismissed any motes he was in contact with, necessitating fresh attire.

Once dressed, he turned to Relay and hoisted him up with his remaining arm. Gold motes swirled around him, elongating into a majestic white heron. Kai mounted it as the bird spread its wings.

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.

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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.

"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."

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.

Kai closed his eyes in mediation, and began to channel white energy to his golden core. In preparation for the fight to come he reviewed all that he'd discovered over the last few months of accelerated time.

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.

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.

While Kai's physical form underwent a torturous metamorphosis, pain was his only reality. A halo of white energy enveloped him. He summoned his white motes to fashion his clothing even before his full reformation. A swirling spectacle of pure wings enveloped him as his transformation reached completion. These wings coalesced into a single majestic garment, enfolding Kai in a resplendent robe.

From his neck to his feet, he was entirely covered. Three large sets of wings fluttered behind him, each bearing golden-bronze eyes that swiveled around, absorbing their surroundings. In his captivity, he had wrestled with the motes, trying to manipulate them into forming regular attire, altering their hue, or even eliminating their all-seeing eyes, but it proved a continual struggle.

These white motes seemed imbued with life, embodying a distinct personality. They resisted any color change, preferring to remain a pure white or reflecting his soul metal’s color. Their curiosity was boundless, perpetually sprouting eyes to scrutinize everything. Kai found it unnerving, but he had no desire to expose himself, and the robes lent him remarkable aerial agility.

"Azurewing," Kai addressed the hovering blue serpent. "Or do I refer to you as Lou Nela?" His voice was steady, resonant. His hair rippled around him, a radiant nimbus, and his eyes mirrored a brooding storm punctuated by sporadic lightning flashes.

Hovering over the ocean of Arcadia, the airborne blue serpent made its way toward him. It executed a complete orbit around Kai before settling before him. From this proximity, he could discern the purple-garbed guardians astride Azurewing's back. Twelve in total, arranged in two columns of six each. Were they here to restrain Azurewing, or did they serve a different purpose?

"I am Ahja Kai, the Soul Forger," Kai's voice thundered across the sky. Silver and blue riders maintained a safe distance, wary now that Azurewing had joined the fray. "The Lou family has transgressed against me, despite my faithful service to them. This I will not forgive."

"What sorcery is this?" The serpent questioned, its forked tongue flicking out, sampling the air.

Kai extended his hand, his blood skill triggering almost reflexively. The blood from his partially chewed arm erupted from its torn flesh. It flowed towards him, morphing into a crimson spear that spun around him once, then rocketed towards Azurewing.

Azurewing deftly evaded the projectile, triumphant laughter ringing out when the spear sailed past. "You'll need more than that."

"Really?" Kai's smile was mischievous. He observed Azurewing's features contorting as she glanced around. One column of her guardians had turned ashen-faced. The other column slumped over and tumbled into the ocean, expressions frozen in shock. Each one had a crimson hole piercing their heart core.

As she swiveled to confront him, fury fueled her assault. The battle over Arcadia had begun.