Chapter Two: The Wolf and the Traitor
"Grandpa!"
Auron's scream tore through the forest like the howl of a dying beast.He burst from the shadows of the oak, snow kicking beneath his boots, his lungs burning with terror.
The air was heavy with iron and ash. The world blurred around him - branches, corpses, and the faint orange shimmer of dying runes in the crater's heart.
And there, in that circle of ruin and blood, stood Malvio he was trembling, his knife buried deep in Godfrey's ribs.
The boy froze. For a moment the world lost sound. Only the slow patter of blood dripping onto snow remained.
"Malvio…?" Auron's voice cracked. "You… you killed him!"
Malvio spun, silver hair matted with sweat and soot. His eyes were wide, haunted it was the eyes of a man who had already damned himself.
"Auron, please! Listen to me! They— they had my daughter! I was saving her!" His words tumbled, desperate, hollow. "The heavens forced me, child! You don't understand— I had no choice!"
But Auron wasn't listening. He fell to his knees beside Godfrey's body. The man's massive frame, once bright with strength, now lay sunken and pale. His eyes were closed. His chest was still. Auron pressed trembling fingers to his neck there was nothing.
The warmth was gone.
His entire world, the warmth, the laughter, the harsh discipline, the safety had been cut out of him in a single heartbeat. He wanted to cry, but no sound came. Only the heavy pounding of his heart, and the cold rush of grief flooding into something darker.
His eyes caught a glint.
Around his wrist, the bracelet with a carved wolf sigil it shimmered faintly beneath the blood-splattered snow. He remembered that day, years ago, when Godfrey had placed it there himself.
"This is our legacy, boy," Godfrey had said with a grin. "The sun rises and sets, the wolf endures. Remember that."
Now that same bracelet was slick with Godfrey's blood. As it touched the crimson pooling on his arm, something ancient stirred.
The runes along the sigil flared with a light that was not of this world cold, silver, and primal. The ground trembled. The air thickened.
Malvio stumbled back, feeling the air twist around the boy. "Auron— give me a chance to explain— please! For Godfrey's sake!"
"Don't you dare say that name out of your filthy mouth."
The voice that left Auron's throat was not his own. It carried a growl, raw and otherworldly, as if a beast spoke through him.
His pupils thinned into slits. His breath came out in cold mist. His face shadowed under a rising veil of spirit-light and above him, forming like smoke and lightning, loomed a great spectral wolf. Its eyes burned silver. Its fangs glimmered like moonlight.
Malvio staggered back in horror. "No… He's forming a contract. Damn it all!"
The air burst apart as Auron lunged, his small body propelled by fury and something unholy. His fingers were claws. His scream was a snarl.
Malvio barely dodged, the boy's strike slicing a gash through his cloak. "Auron! That thing's not your savior, it's trying to consume you! You're letting it make you its vessel!"
But the boy heard nothing. His body moved on instinct or possession.
The wolf spirit howled, and Auron mirrored it, the cry echoing across the trees. Snow whipped up like a blizzard around them.
"Then I'll stop you by force!" Malvio roared, summoning his own mana. The silver tattoos on his arms lit up as mana veins pulsed to life beneath his skin. His palms flared with blue light, circles of ancient script turning in the air.
He rushed forward.
The clearing became a storm.
Auron struck first, leaping high. His nails met Malvio's forearm with a metallic clang, sparks flying as invisible force collided.
Malvio twisted, catching Auron's leg midair, slamming him into the snow but Auron flipped, rolling like a beast and coming back up with frightening agility.
His small frame radiated power, veins glowing like molten silver under his skin.
Malvio raised his hand and the sigil on his palm flared. "Bind!" Chains of light erupted from the air, snapping toward Auron like serpents. The boy caught one midflight and tore it apart.
The explosion of mana sent both of them flying backward, trees snapping like twigs.
Malvio hit the ground hard, coughing blood, his ribs aching. He glanced up just in time to see Auron's shadow stretch impossibly tall. The spectral wolf behind him threw back its head and howled and the sound shook the earth.
"That's no ordinary spirit," Malvio muttered, fear clawing through his composure.
He dashed forward again, drawing a blade of condensed mana. The boy met him halfway, their strikes colliding again and again the light and shadow clashing in a blur. Sparks rained like meteors. Each hit resounded like thunder.
Auron's speed was feral, unpredictable a hunter's rhythm, primal and raw.
Malvio was the craftsman, each parry precise, each step controlled. It was instinct versus experience, chaos versus calm.
Finally, Auron's punch connected. Malvio flew back, blood spraying from his mouth. His shoulder cracked against a boulder, breaking it apart. The world spun.
Malvio groaned, trying to rise. "Damn… this boy's body— it's mutating."
Auron stood at the edge of the crater, his body trembling, eyes glowing with that unnatural light. The wolf's specter loomed behind him like a god of vengeance.
Malvio made a choice.
He raised his hand, gathered mana in his palm, and whispered an incantation too old for mortal tongues. The energy coiled around him, amplifying his strength for one final strike. He shot forward like lightning, palm striking the boy's chest.
Auron's eyes widened as his body stiffened, the light inside him flickering and dimming. The wolf spirit howled once more then shattered like glass.
Silence.
Snow fell again.
Auron collapsed, unconscious, his chest rising and falling in ragged breaths.
Malvio knelt beside him, gasping for air. He placed his trembling hand on the boy's back and began to circulate his mana to stabilize the boy before the contract devoured what was left of him.
And then he froze.
"What in the…?" His eyes widened. "Two mana vessels?"
Every human was born with one. One vessel the Dantian a core in the lower abdomen that gathered and refined mana, and allowed internal control mana.
A rare few developed a Mana Circle around their heart a loop that refined mana and allowed external control of mana. But two vessels? That was blasphemy against creation itself.
"This isn't humanly possible…" Malvio whispered, voice trembling. "No one should be able to hold this much power. Not even a Highstar."
His mind raced. In the world's hierarchy, mana cultivators were divided by Stars from the first, a flicker of awakening, to the tenth, a god who could command the laws of nature itself.
Godfrey had barely reached the Seventh Star which was enough to slaughter armies. But this boy… this sleeping child… had the potential for more.
The Heir of Achelous.
Realization struck Malvio like a spear. He drew his hand back slowly.
The heavens would come for this boy. The courts, the inquisitors, the Orders every force that claimed divine authority would burn continents to find him.
And Malvio… Malvio was tired.
He looked at his bloodstained hands, at the corpse of his friend and mentor, and felt something hollow gnaw inside. "What have I done?" he whispered. "How many times do I have to betray what's left of my soul just to keep breathing?"
He sighed, a sound that carried both regret and resignation. "You were right, old man. The heavens never forgive. They only take."
With the last of his strength, he guided the mana within Auron's body, sealing the wolf's power deep inside. A mark shimmered over the boy's chest the sigil of a sleeping beast. The contract was dormant, but not gone.
When the work was done, Malvio rose. He walked to Godfrey's body, kneeling beside it. His trembling hands brushed the snow from the warrior's bronze skin.
"You deserved better than this," he murmured. "I can't undo what I've done. But I'll give you the proper burial."
He dug through the frost with his bare hands, each motion slower, heavier. The snow soaked with blood until it froze crimson.
When the grave was deep enough, he lifted Godfrey his bones creaking, muscles straining and laid him to rest. He whispered the old prayers of their order, the same ones they'd recited in younger, cleaner days.
The language of warriors who believed their fight was sacred.
By the time the final words left his lips, dawn was creeping through the clouds.
Malvio closed Godfrey's eyes, covering his body with earth and snow. Then he turned to the corpses of the silver-armored assassins and burned them, muttering words that turned their bodies to ash so no diviner could trace the deed.
He glanced one last time at Auron, still unconscious, still breathing. "You'll be hunted forever, boy," he said softly. "But maybe you'll find something worth being hunted for."
He placed the boy gently in the cart, beside a small sack of supplies. He looked at him once more, then turned away.
As he walked into the forest, his mana faded. The silver glow in his veins dimmed.
Malvio was done being a sorcerer. Done being a servant. Done being a traitor.
All he wanted now was to be forgotten by gods and men alike.
Behind him, the forest whispered. Snow drifted down upon the grave of a warrior and the sleeping heir beside it.
And far beyond, in the heavens that watched them both, something stirred