Chapter 51: The Gathering of Shadows
The chamber was lit by voidflame — fire that cast no shadows, only unease. Beneath its flickering light, cloaked figures assembled around an obsidian table, each bearing the mark of a different sect, cult, or forgotten clan. They had not gathered in peace. They had gathered in fear.
At the head sat Elder Haryn of the Veyron Sect, his skeletal frame wrapped in silken black. His expression, usually calm, now twisted with restrained urgency.
"You all saw it," he began, voice razor-thin. "That wasn't just power. That was a declaration."
A murmur of assent rippled through the room.
"He severed Jura with a strike that split the sky."
"Destroyed a mountain from a single gesture."
"His presence stilled the wind itself."
Haryn raised a hand, silencing the anxious chorus.
"Kai is no longer a disciple. He's a threat to our dominion, to our very philosophies. His existence is an affront to the balance of cultivation."
Across the table, a shrouded figure from the Ashen Claw Sect leaned forward. "So kill him. Poison. Seal. Curse. What does it matter?"
"If only it were that simple," hissed a warlock from the Shifting Mirage Cult. "His reality is no longer fixed. Our spies returned in pieces—those that returned at all."
"He erased one of our assassins from time itself," another voice muttered. "There was no scream. Just… nothing."
A heavy silence followed. The usual methods wouldn't work. Assassins failed. Traps were walked through. Even ancient artifacts of sealing bent under his gaze.
But fear breeds invention.
"There is a way," said an old woman, her eyes blind but her Ki sickly dense — Grand Matron Veyra of the Hollow Depths.
They turned to her.
"We summon something not of this cycle," she whispered. "From beyond even the Veil of Saints. A being without form or rules. A Divergence Seed."
Even Haryn tensed. "That ritual was outlawed after the Saintslayer Wars."
"And yet here we are," she snapped. "Outlawed rituals for an outlawed power."
A long pause. Then nods — slow, grim, one by one.
"So be it," Haryn said.
They began drafting a plan.
Not to defeat Kai.
But to unmake him.
⸻
Far from the shadows gathering in secret, Kai stood alone at the edge of a cliff overlooking Stormbell Cradle. His gaze distant. His form quiet.
Somewhere, he felt it.
Not fear.
But intent.
Like a ripple in water before the drop.
He said nothing.
But his eyes narrowed.
And the wind around him curled unnaturally, as if bracing for a coming storm.