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Anger. Pain. Revenge. Those were the only emotions Kai could feel as he dug a hole beside the pond. He had been digging for the past three hours, with his bare hands alone.
His dead, pale eyes stared at the ground as he dug up another piece of dirt and tossed it aside. Why did this happen? He needed answers but couldn't get a single one.
He slowly stood up and stared at the human-sized hole, then he turned and looked at his wrapped-up mother's corpse. He clenched his jaw so hard blood began pouring out of his mouth.
Why did his mother, of all people, have to die? Wasn't she faithful enough? Wasn't she the one who led and inspired all to worship the gods?
He clenched his fists, tears rolling down his eyes. He pressed his eyelids together tightly to stop the tears.
No! I have to be strong! One way or another, I will avenge you, mother!
He went over to her and rolled her corpse onto a large piece of wood he had found lying around. Then he began dragging the corpse to the hole. His mother was too heavy for him to carry, so he dragged her across the ground with ragged breaths.
What else could he do? He was already tired, he could not breathe properly due to the smoke that engulfed the whole atmosphere, but he still held on, pulling the wood closer and closer to the hole.
On reaching the hole, he breathed out slowly, his thoughts scattered as he pushed the corpse into the hole. He knelt down and looked at the corpse once more before closing his eyes and standing up.
His eyes shone with determination as he opened them. It's time! Time I get my aspect!
With the way he was, there was no way he was going to get his revenge on Altherion, much less his followers. He might not even survive leaving this forest.
His mother had once told him that one could get aspects from the World Tree, deep within its roots. So that was where he was headed.
He began scrambling around, looking for anything that he could carry with him. A knife—that was the only thing he could find in the end. He sighed in disappointment.
He looked at the burning temple one last time before walking away. He felt like this was the last time he was ever going to see this temple.
The air around him grew heavy as Kai turned toward the center of the forest. Each step he took felt distant, disconnected, like his body was moving on instinct while his mind remained buried in grief.
Even if he didn't end up getting an aspect, he wouldn't be really surprised. After all, his mother—one who was loyal and ever-serving to the gods—was killed, and they did nothing.
Those thoughts only made his fury burn the more as he clenched his fists, his eyes burning with rage. He continued walking through the forest with slow, dead steps.
The trees whispered with a low groan, their branches curling in strange, unnatural ways, as if the forest itself was mourning alongside him.
The World Tree loomed ahead—massive, ancient, its bark gnarled and blackened in places, yet pulsing faintly with life. Vines coiled down its trunk like veins, and the ground around it had long been consumed by roots that twisted over one another like serpents frozen in time.
Kai reached the roots of the World Tree and placed a trembling hand on the bark. It was warm. Alive. Breathing.
His mother had always said the World Tree listened to the purest desires of the soul. That if one stood before it, heart bared and will unwavering, it would answer. He didn't know if that was a myth or hope disguised as faith—but it was all he had left.
"I want power…" he whispered hoarsely, his voice cracking as if he had just spat out venom. "Give me the strength to destroy them. All of them."
He didn't believe he was going to get a powerful aspect—after all, they served the goddess of life. But he still needed something. Anything. That might give him a little hope to achieve what he had set out to do.
The roots beneath his feet trembled.
Suddenly, the ground cracked open.
He took in a deep breath as the world fell away from him, darkness pulling him in like a bottomless well. There was no sound—no wind—only a chilling silence as he dropped deeper into the belly of the earth.
And then, light.
A dim golden glow greeted him as he fell to the bottom and hit the ground with a thud. The light wasn't warm, neither did it brighten up the space. It was just there, subtle.
He groaned slightly, pushing himself up. Around him was a cavern of twisted roots and glowing sap—like veins pulsing with divine ichor. The air was thick, suffocating, vibrating with something… ancient.
Then it spoke. A deep voice from the light.
"So… you are the one."
The voice was not loud—but it filled the space, pressing against his skin, his lungs, his bones. The pressure from the voice alone was immense, as if it could crush him if the volume increased.
It was neither male nor female. It was something beyond all that. Something primal. Something ancient.
Kai backed away from the golden light in confusion. "Who's there?!" His thoughts were in disarray. Wasn't Eshara a goddess? Why couldn't he hear a female voice?
The aura being released from the light wasn't calm like how the goddess of light's own was said to be. Instead, it was like a hungry beast, ready to consume.
"You call for vengeance. You offer your soul, your purpose, your fire. You beg for strength. But do you know what strength demands, little child?"
"I…" Kai blinked. His body trembled as he heard the voice once more. "I don't understand! What is this place? Who are you?!"
"They sealed me away… chained me beneath the roots they once worshiped. A beast, they called me. An abomination. And yet, I was the first."
The sap along the roots flared with heat, casting strange, shifting shadows across the cavern walls. The air turned electric. The pressure increased once more instantly.
It was as if the entity was getting more angry with each word it spoke. The entity was completely ignoring him and just spouting words as if programmed to do so.
A searing light swallowed his vision.
And then—a vision.
Not his.
He saw a massive beast that looked almost human as it stood on its two feet, cloaked in twilight, standing proud upon a blackened hill. It had two large obsidian horns protruding from its forehead, two large wings like that of a dragon, and a long, thick tail of an unknown beast. It stared out at a dozen golden thrones that floated high above. The figures seated upon them were obscured by radiant halos—faceless, divine, yet cold.
One voice thundered:
"We are tired of your influence over humans. It's time you step down."
"Just what do you think of the humans! Do you think they are your toys that you can just use whenever you want?!"
Another large, cruel voice echoed, "You think you're one to talk. You are chaos incarnate! A threat to divine order."
"The humans were created to serve a purpose! And one purpose only—to give us divine energy. We don't have any use for them other than that!" a calm yet cold voice said. "You have constantly opposed us. It's time you were put in your place—you are no longer the elder god, you don't have a choice!"
The man-like beast roared in anger, betrayal leaking from every note the eleven figures spoke. The thrones glowed brighter, chains of light surged down, binding his limbs, wings, and throat.
"You think you can keep me sealed forever!" he screamed in anger. "I will find a way to escape, and once I do! I will kill you all!"
"Wait—" Kai clutched his head as pain stabbed behind his eyes. "Stop! These voices—the gods—why do I hear them?"
"Because you are now part of me."
The light snapped back, and Kai collapsed to his knees in the cavern, his eyes widening at the realization of what he had just witnessed. He gritted his teeth in anger.
Those were the gods! And we—we are only their source of power! What does that have to do with my mother? Why did she have to die? Just for them to gain power?!
His anger surged even more as these questions kept popping into his head.
He heard the voice again, this time closer now, more intimate—whispered like wind in his ears.
"You wanted an aspect. I offer you more. I offer my will—my wrath—my forgotten divinity. Will you take it, child of ash and blood?"
Kai's throat felt dry. Every instinct screamed for him to run, to escape this being that was sealed by the gods, that was feared by them. But then he remembered his mother—her smile, her blood, her grave.
He clenched his fists.
"Yes," he breathed. "Give it to me. I don't care what I become! As long as I get to murder each and every one of those bastards!"
The roots surged upward, wrapping around his arms, chest, and head. A flood of power tore through his body, igniting every nerve. He screamed—not in fear—but in sheer agony as something vast and divine was carved into his very soul.
"Good! You were once scared! You were once hunted! But now, it's time for you to hunt!" the voice faded as Kai collapsed to the ground.
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