A cold breeze blew past Rion as he stared down at Grathar, who lay on the ground with blood pouring out of the flesh tears on his face.

Rion stepped closer to him, crouched beside his head and asked, "Do you want to continue?"

Grathar's dark eyes trembled towards him, the will to continue fighting still burning in them.

Rion chuckled, placed a hand on his heart and said, "I sincerely respect you as a warrior... You weren't someone who neglects the grief around you from birth, were you?"

Grathar didn't answer but his eyes turned a bit darker as if remembering something that he had promised to keep buried in himself.

Rion didn't need words, he understood that every person had at least a scar deep within them, and that scar was what shaped them.

"No, you weren't. You were made into the person you are by the world around you..."

Rion stood up, his eyes drifted towards the remaining two — Drokan and Zoka — and he said, "I am not here to judge you, I want you to help me create a new world for people around us... so they don't become like you."

Grathar's blood-soaked lips parted, and he whispered, "Don't you mean... like us?"

Rion smirked and responded, "Like me? The world around me doesn't carve me, I carve the world around me."

Grathar blinked a few times before a chuckle escaped his lips with tears that he had forgotten to shed for decades.

Rion stepped towards the centre of the clearing, his eyes fixed on Drokan and Zoka as he said, "Which one of you wants to have a go next?"

Both of them looked at one another, sparks crackling between them as both of them were rivals; neither could just step forward and accept that he was weaker, their pride didn't allow them to.

Rion shook his head and declared, "We don't have time to waste. Come, both of you."

Drokan and Zoka frowned, and Zoka muttered, "Are you disrespecting us?"

"..." Rion stared at him with a deadpan look. He shrugged and disappeared from his spot.

Zoka and Drokan lifted their arms and blocked Rion's punch.

Drokan and Zoka's grip tightened around their axes, and suddenly something tore through the sky.

Something dark streaked towards them, and Rion jumped back.

THUD! CRACK!

The ground shook and cracked. A cloud of dust rose, blocking everyone's vision.

"What was that?!" Naqir and Kara yelled at the same time, and Sovra commented, "It seemed to have come from the south."

"Could it be?" Marin mumbled, and Valak nodded.

A few moments later, the dust cleared, and Rion's gaze fell on his lunging serpent spear.

He tore his gaze towards the south and mumbled, "Father...?"

"It seems the Sovereign is keeping an eye on you," Drokan muttered while pointing his battle axe at him.

Zoka didn't speak. He stepped forward and said, "High commander? Do you believe a rank is enough to command us? No. To command us, you must defeat us first..."

His eyes sharpened, and he spat, "Do you think none of us care about OUR tribe? OUR people?! We aren't an anomaly like you! We lived in the fear of the beings that you could kill leisurely!"

All of the group leaders clenched their fists, and their eyes darkened with the memories of what they had lost already.

Drokan stepped beside Zoka and declared, "Kill the Remnant? They are the one who remains, Rion Del Haden. Do you think I don't want to rip that bastard apart? But what If I do? For them, all of this is a game until they obtain the way to their revenge, and for us, they are a wall that cannot be taken down."

Both of their aura flared, and they challenged, "If you dare give us hope, then prove yourself!!"

The ground shook, and the sky trembled as their Zones and aura flooded out.

Rion quickly grabbed the spear, poured his will into it and activated his weapons sense.

Their attacks came towards him with brutish authority, each one sending tremors through the ground.

Rion fought back with the same intensity, but his mind was too muddled to focus completely.

Rion wasn't blind to their loss and scars, yet he had acted as if none of it mattered, and they were some kind of villainous leaders trying to sabotage the tribe for their own profit.

'Why did I do that...?' He questioned himself, and suddenly, the images of the humanoid monster began to resurface.

The attacks continued.

Zoka's axe tore through both the air and ground while Drokan's axe followed him like a rabid beast.

He blocked both, and before he knew it, he entered The Flow.

His body moved by its own, controlling aura became no different from breathing, but what happened next was what shocked everyone.

As they fought, both Zoka and Drokan also entered The Flow.

Their attacks became more fluid, more precise, instead of destructive.

Their Zone pressed on Rion's Zone to crumble it, but his Zone was simply too strong — it was being enhanced by his aura and bloodline, after all.

As Rion went through the memory of the humanoid monster, he understood one thing: unknowingly, he had begun to follow the ways of the humanoid monster.

The humanoid monster had fought for years, if not decades, and devoured Nothing to finally reach a world where it didn't have to fight to live... it had finally found peace.

Rion wanted the same; he didn't want to be chained by anything, so he naturally thought to break the chains binding him.

But in that, he had forgotten that not all chains were forced onto us; some chains we wore by ourselves, and those chains were what made him different from that humanoid monster.

His thoughts began to calm, and he mumbled, "I am different..."

Drokan and Zoka furrowed their brows, and their attacks turned faster.

Golden light poured out as the mark of wings on his back unfurled completely and he finally caught a glimpse of what was hidden in the depths of his bloodline.

Rion looked in their eyes and muttered, "I am not hope but certainty."

His bloodline was changing him.

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